Il faut partir pour l’Angleterre

Il faut partir pour l’Angleterre
(We have to leave for England), folk song from the Swiss canton of Valais

Year of composition

1949

Duration

2'

Scored for

voice and piano, see also Chanson des métamorphoses

Publication information

Universal Edition (UE35923)

Commentary

The two French folk songs published in this edition were discovered by Frank Martin during two mountain excursions – in a similar way to Béla Bartók when he collected his folk melodies. Frank Martin heard Chanson des Métamorphoses being sung by a child in a Savoy valley (French: Savoie) to the south of Geneva. It took a large amount of chocolate to persuade the boy to sing the whole of the long text clearly so that he could write down the many verses. The second folk song Il faut partir pour l’Angleterre was also heard by him, sung by a small boy with a strong voice in a valley in Wallis, in south-west Switzerland.
Maria Martin

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