Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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On "Le bon roi Dagobert" - (2016)
for piano
The children's song, "Le bon roi Dagobert" tells in lyric of the "good king Dagobert" and his faults. The first verse: "Good King Dagobert / Has put his culottes on backwards; / Great Saint Eloi / Says: O, my king! / Your majesty / Is poorly dressed. / It's true, says the King, / I'll have to do it again properly." The silly fictional king errs in dressing and grooming in a variety of ways, and was likely satirically targeting Louis XVI before the final end to the aristocracy in France before the rise of Napoleon (who one remembers also sought to be emperor, showing man's urge to rule as an aristocrat). Being a children's song today, the setting is sweet and lyrical.
The setting moves between the tonic G and its submediant E, as well as between 3/4 and then two sets of 3/8 within the 3/4 notation, which could of course had been notated as in 3/4 with a doubling of the tempo.
4 pages, circa 4' 30" - an MP3 demo is here:
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano score.
