Traditional Catalan El Noi de la Mare
The Catalan lullaby and Christmas song, arranged for guitar.
Sheet music PDF.
Edition notes
The song is traditional Catalan, sung as a lullaby and as a Christmas Nativity carol.
Què li darem a n'el Noi de la Mare?
Què li darem que li sàpiga bo?
Panses i figues i nous i olives,
Panses i figues i mel i mató.
What will we give to the son of the Mother?
What will we give him that's tasty and good?
Raisins and figs and walnuts and olives,
Raisins and figs and honey and curd.
In my version, I’ve added a short intro, which also gets echoed at the very end. The 3rd and 4th lines of each verse are repeated. The first couple of verses are accompanied by broken chords, then after a key change there is a bit more horizontal movement, before finally thining out to a sparser texture.
Guitar versions of El Noi de la Mare
Miguel Llobet
The most well known setting of El Noi de la Mare for classical guitar is by Miguel Llobet, one of his Cançons Popular Catalanes. It has been widely published, sometimes with slight variants.
Miguel Llobet, El Noi de la Mare manuscript. Archive of Museu de la Música de Barcelona.
Miguel Llobet, El Noi de la Mare IMSLP entry. https://imslp.org/wiki/El_Noy_de_la_Mare_(Llobet,_Miguel).
In The Guitar Music of Spain, Volume 3. Publisher: Music Sales.
A version transcribed from an Andrés Segovia recording. Bergmann Edition
Some other published versions
Here’s list of some other versions for solo classical guitar (certainly not exhaustive, but it might be a useful enough resource). Some are clearly derived to some extent from the Llobet version. Most take a relatively straightforward approach, a harmonized accompaniment to the melody; one or two included here are more like original works, using the tune as a theme and point of depature.
For time signature, some are notated in 3/4, others in 6/8. Of these, some have an anacrusis so the 4th note of the melody falls on the stressed first beat of the bar. This is how the tune appears in an early written version, from an organ freestyle notebook of around 1820, preserved in the Chapter Archive of Lleida Cathedral (see the bottom of image on the El Noi de la Mare Wikipedia entry, titled Mañaguet de la Mare).
Gaspar Cassadó, Leyenda Catalana (1965). In Works for Guitar, Bèrben Edizioni Musicali 2003.
Cees Hartog, in Guitar Tripper, easy pieces for 1 & 2 guitars. Alsbach Educa.
Rossini Hayward, in Christmas Carols for Guitar. Ut Orpheus.
Jack Marshall, Catalonian Song, in Christopher Parkening: Romanza. Antigua Casa Sherry-Brener 1973, reprint Hal Leonard 1997.
Sophocles Papas, in Five Catalan Melodies - Harmonized by Miguel LLobet. Columbia Music Co.
Manuel Ponce, Canción Popular Gallega, 1927, reproduced in Manuel M. Ponce and the Guitar by Corazón Otero. Translated by J. D. Roberts. Musical New Services, 1983.
Manuel Ponce, Canción Popular Gallega, ed. Gerard Garno. In A New Look at Segovia, His Life, His Music, Volume 2 by Graham Wade and Gerard Garno. Mel Bay 2018.
Nicholas Powlesland, in Classical Guitar Exam Pieces: Grade 3. Trinity College London Press.
Eduardo Sáinz de la Maza, in Musica para Guitarra: Guitar Solo. Unión Musical Ediciones.
Andrés Segovia, in 23 Canciones Populares de distintos paises. Bèrben.
Graciano Tarragó Cuatro Canciones Catalanas Navideñas, Union Musical Ediciones UMG21711.
Edition summary
| Title | El Noi de la Mare |
| Composer | Traditional Catalan |
| Instrument | Guitar |
| Arranger | Jonty Dawson |
| Edition date | 2024-12-14 |
| Page count | 2 |
| Edition PDF | trad-catalan-el-noi-de-la-mare-guitar.pdf |