Me Anvez Eur Goulmik Lesson

The title says “I know a little dove”

The repository spelling Me Anvez Eur Goulmik preserves older Breton orthography. The historical songbook supplies the French heading “Je connais une colombe”: “I know a little dove.” The bird is a shy beloved, hidden in thick woods with a high nest. The singer hopes to win her tender heart.

Later stanzas make the image less carefree. Even if the dove has forgotten him, he will keep loving her; if she has left his country or died, hope remains that they will meet among the angels. KAN’s catalogue describes five eight-line stanzas and classifies the subject as a young man’s reverie and description of his mistress.

“Dove” appears in many Breton religious, legendary, and love songs. Dastum’s oral archive contains separate works called Ar goulmig wenn, the white dove. Similar imagery does not prove they are versions of this particular courtship song.

The archival author is François Jaffrennou, not “anonymous”

KAN’s broadsheet catalogue assigns Ar goulmig to François Jaffrennou (1879–1956). The Rennes 2 digital collection preserves his 1900 Levr kanaouennou brezounek, a book of Breton songs with music. A later Botrel–Taldir collection prints Me anvez eur goulmik with its text and explanation.

Jaffrennou used the bardic name Taldir ab Hernin, received at the Cardiff Eisteddfod in 1899. The National Library of Wales and Bécédia describe him as a Breton-language poet, editor, regionalist organizer, and co-founder of the Breton Gorsedd. He also adapted the Welsh Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau into the Breton Bro Gozh ma Zadoù.

This context matters because modern tune books often call the dove melody “Breton traditional.” A melody can enter folk circulation, but that label should not silently erase a named song writer in the archival catalogue.

A 1914 disc preserves the author as performer

The KAN discography lists Taldir himself singing Ar goulmik for Pathé in 1914, catalogue 4927. The long verse song occupied both sides of a 78 rpm record. That is unusually strong evidence: the song is tied not only to print but to its attributed writer’s own recorded performance.

Later instrumental life changed the label. John Loesberg’s 1988 The Celtic Harp, a harp teaching edition, includes Me a gar eur goulmik. Modern listings translate that form as “I Love a Turtle Dove” and often mark it traditional. Idlewild recorded it under the altered title in 2004. The tune survived, while spelling, verb, arrangement, and attribution loosened.

Whisflo now uses a direct C-major transposition

The teaching ABC published on Mudcat is in G major. Its melody uses E, F♯, G, A, and B, begins with two pickup eighth notes on E, and contains the same sixteen-bar phrase order found in the repository.

Whisflo transposes that source consistently into C major: source E–F♯–G–A–B becomes A–B–C–D–E. The score remains in 2/4 at 90 BPM, begins with A–A pickup eighths, and ends on a one-beat A. Across the whole score there are 48 attacks, spanning A4–A5.

The opening pattern returns twice: C–D in quarters, E–E–A–A in eighths, C–B, then A with two pickup-like eighths. The second half extends the E figures, climbs to A5, and produces quicker C–A–A–B turns.

All five pitches are natural notes, so none of the 48 attacks requires the slide. This direct transposition replaces the repository’s former non-linear chromatic remapping while preserving the documented rhythm and contour.

Practise the pickup, octave, and two-beat phrase

Begin at 54 BPM with the pickup A–A, then C–D. Keep the two pickup eighths light and let C–D occupy one full beat each. Next isolate E–E–A–A and keep all four eighth notes equal without accenting the downward leap.

Loop C–B–A, then E–E–D–E. Keep the one-hole movements compact and make the low A4 and high A5 feel like two registers of the same tonal centre rather than unrelated notes.

Join four bars at a time. Count two beats per bar, not four eighth-note mini-beats. The quarter notes must remain broad enough to contrast with the quicker cells.

Increase through 54, 64, 74, 82, and 90 BPM. Shape the first half as a restrained address to the dove and allow the extended second half to grow more urgent before the final A settles.