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Frère Jacques

Frère Jacques is a worldwide famous song. It was probably written in the 18th century and became really famous in the 19th. In 1780 a manuscript of the collection of the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris contained the melody but it was titled Frère Blaise. Another manuscript that contains the song has been recently discovered. This one was written by the famous French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. Anyway, nothing can be said for certain right now. What is clear is that it has been translated into a lot of languages: Are you sleeping? (English), Fra’ Martino (Italian), Bruder Jakob (German), Frate Ioane (Romanian), Frei João (Portuguese) and Fray Santiago o Martinillo (Spanish), etc.

The song tells the story of a friar who has got asleep and is urged to perform his duty of ringing the bells. It is considered to be a song against laziness.