Marianne

unknown

Arranger's note: I found the melody and words of this song in "Folk Songs" (ISBN 978-1-4234-6764-9) published by Hal Leonard Corporation in 2009, where it is listed as "traditional". Subsequently I noticed (on youtube) that the melody of the chorus (but not the verse), and some of the words, of Marianne, were recorded as a calypso, Mary Ann, by Rafael de Leon, aka Roaring Lion (1908-1999) in the 1940s: it's not clear where the melody of the verse and the remaining lyrics come from. In a 1990 interview (online at http://www.pancaribbean.com/banyan/Lion.htm) Roaring Lion says that he wrote the song on St Peter's Day 1941, but that many other singers started to claim authorship too. On the subject of
ownership (copyright) he admits that "the truth is that that is an old French song... sung in the last century."

sheet music (PDF master score with permission to print or download an authorised number of copies) available via this website: GBP 1.20 per print-out

• choral - low voices accompanied