View source for Fum, Fum, Fum

{{Short description|Catalan Christmas carol}}
{{listen
|filename=U.S. Army Band - Fum, Fum, Fum.ogg
|title=Fum, Fum, Fum
|description=A somewhat idiosyncratic arrangement of ''Fum, Fum, Fum'', in Spanish instead of the original [[Catalan language|Catalan]], performed by the U.S. Army Band Chorus.
}}

'''Fum, Fum, Fum''' ({{IPA|ca|ˈfum ˈfum ˈfum|lang}}) is a traditional [[Catalan language|Catalan]] [[Christmas carol]]. It was first documented by the [[Folklore studies|folklorist]] Joaquim Pecanins in 1904, who had heard the song at the Christmas Eve [[Misa de Gallo|midnight mass]] in [[Prats de Lluçanès]].<ref name="3/24">{{cite news |last1=Vila Cabanas |first1=Ferran |title=Què amaga el "Fum, fum, fum", la nadala que va saltar del Lluçanès al món malgrat l'Església |url=https://www.ccma.cat/324/que-amaga-el-fum-fum-fum-la-nadala-que-va-saltar-del-llucanes-al-mon-malgrat-lesglesia/noticia/3267829/ |access-date=6 January 2024 |work=3/24 |date=25 December 2023 |language=Catalan}}</ref> However, the song's origins stretch back to the 16th or 17th century, according to [[folklorist]] [[Joan Amades]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Jariod |first=per Pere Andreu |title=Cantar per Nadal – Els podcasts de FICTA |url=https://podcast.ficta.cat/paperets/cantar-per-nadal/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |language=ca}}</ref> 

In 1922, the [[musicologist]] [[Kurt Schindler]] first translated the song into English, publishing it in one of the largest musical publishing houses of the era, [[Oliver Ditson|Oliver Ditson and Company]] in [[Boston]].<ref name="3/24" /> Spanish-language versions are also popular today, and it is included in many traditional Spanish Christmas carol collections.

==Meaning==
Before being written down in the early 20th century, the song was a typical example of a ''cançó de les mentides'' (English: "song of lies"), appropriate for the debaucherous way in which Christmas was celebrated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Lyrics were improvised each time it was sung, with each verse more absurd than the last.<ref name="3/24" /> Some of this survives in the modern Catalan version, which in one [[Verse (poetry)|verse]] asks ''qui dirà més gran mentida?'' (English: "who will tell a bigger lie?"), while a different verse references [[shepherd]]s eating eggs and sausage—an explicit reference to [[fellatio]].<ref name=":1" />

Indeed, the [[Ethnomusicology|ethnomusicologist]] Jaume Ayats notes that the word "fum" is the imperative form of the [[verb]] "fúmer", which in a literal sense means "to fornicate" but can be used as a slang form of saying "to do". In fact, the original song was sung with "fot, fot, fot", from the verb "fotre" instead, a less polite verb with the same meaning.<ref name=":1" /> When Pecanins first documented the song, he changed the lyrics to "fum, fum, fum", thought to be more acceptable to a broader audience.<ref name="3/24" />

Other sources have suggested a more innocent meaning to the lyrics. Since the word "fum" also means "smoke" in Catalan, it has been suggested the name may simply refer to the smoke rising from a chimney as seen from afar, or, as indicated in the ''[[New Oxford Book of Carols]]'', "may imitate the sound of a drum (or perhaps the strumming of a guitar)".<ref>''[[New Oxford Book of Carols]]''</ref> ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (1913) defines "fum" as "to play upon a fiddle", quoting Ben Jonson, "Follow me, and fum as you go."<ref>''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (1913)</ref> 

== Lyrics ==
Foreign-language versions typically do not literally translate the original lyrics. For example, the typical English version of the carol, created by [[Alice Parker]] and [[Robert Shaw (conductor)|Robert Shaw]] in 1953, does not take into account the satirical substratum of the original. It was this version that popularized the carol in the United States and other English-speaking areas, though there are several other versions in English as well.
{|
!English version<ref>Version by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw, with their arrangements for SATB choir, a cappella, ''Robert Shaw Choral Series: Music Especially Suitable for Christmas'', NY, NY: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1953.</ref>||Catalan Version<ref name=":0">Traditional version compiled by the famous Catalan folklorist [[Joan Amades]]. It can be consulted, for example, in Joan Amades: ''Les cent millors cançons de nadal'', Barcelona: labutxaca, Grup 62, 2009</ref>||Alternative Catalan version||Translation of Catalan lyrics
|- valign="top"
|
On December five and twenty<br />
fum, fum, fum.<br />
On December five and twenty,<br />
fum, fum fum.<br />
Oh, a child was born this night<br />
So rosy white, so rosy white<br />
Son of Mary, virgin holy<br />
In a stable, mean and lowly,<br />
fum, fum, fum.<br />

On December five and twenty<br />
fum, fum, fum.<br />
On December five and twenty<br />
fum, fum, fum.<br />
Comes a most important day<br />
Let us be gay, let us be gay.<br />
We go first to church and then we<br />
Have the sweetest buns and candy,<br />
fum, fum, fum, fum, fum.<br />

God will send us days of feasting<br />
fum, fum, fum.<br />
God will send us days of feasting<br />
fum, fum, fum.<br />
Both in hot months and in cold<br />
for young and old, for young and old.<br />
We will tell the holy story<br />
Ever singing of his glory,<br />
fum, fum, fum.
|
A vint-i-cinc de desembre<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
A vint-i-cinc de desembre<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
Ha nascut un minyonet<br />
ros i blanquet, ros i blanquet;<br />
Fill de la Verge Maria,<br />
n'és nat en una establia.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />

Allí dalt de la muntanya<br />
fum, fum, fum<br/>
Allí dalt de la muntanya<br />
fum, fum, fum<br/>
Si n'hi ha dos pastorets<br />
abrigadets, abrigadets;<br />
amb la pell i la samarra,<br />
menjant ous i botifarra.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />

Qui dirà més gran mentida?<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
Qui dirà més gran mentida?<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
Ja en respon el majoral<br />
el gran tabal, el gran tabal;<br />
jo en faré deu mil camades<br />
amb un salt totes plegades.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />

A vint-i-cinc de desembre<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
A vint-i-cinc de desembre<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
n'és el dia de Nadal,<br />
molt principal, molt principal,<br />
quan n'eixirem de matines,<br />
farem bones escudines.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />

Déu vos do unes santes festes<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
Déu vos do unes santes festes<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
amb temps de fred i calor,<br />
i molt millor, i molt millor<br />
fent-ne de Jesús memòria<br />
perquè ens vulgui dalt la glòria.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.
|
El vint-i-cinc de desembre<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
El vint-i-cinc de desembre<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
Ha nascut un minyonet<br />
ros i blanquet, ros i blanquet;<br />
Fill de la Verge Maria,<br />
si n'és nat en una establia.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />

Aquí dalt de la muntanya<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
Aquí dalt de la muntanya<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
N'hi ha dos pastorets <br />
abrigadets, abrigadets; <br />
amb la pell i la samarra, <br />
mengen ous i botifarra. <br />
Fum, fum, fum. <br />

Qui dirà més gran mentida?<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
Qui dirà més gran mentida?<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
Ja respon el majoral <br />
amb gran cabal, amb gran cabal; <br />
jo faré deu mil camades <br />
amb un salt totes plegades. <br />
Fum, fum, fum.
|
On the 25th of December<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
On the 25th of December<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
A little boy was born<br />
blond and fair, blond and fair;<br />
Son of the Virgin Mary,<br />
he has been born in a stable.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />

Here atop the mountain<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
Here atop the mountain<br />
fum, fum, fum<br />
There are two little shepherds<br />
warming themselves, warming themselves; <br />
In their [[sheepskin]] and [[zamarra]], <br />
They are eating eggs and sausage. <br />
Fum, fum, fum. <br />

Who will tell a bigger lie?<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
Who will tell a bigger lie?<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
The majoral<ref>{{cite book |title=Diccionari de la llengua catalana |date=2021 |publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |edition=Second |language=Catalan}} A "majoral" is a supervisor, in this case likely referring to the head of a group of shepherds.</ref> responds <br />
very fluidly, very fluidly;<br />
I will take ten thousand strides<br />
all in one jump. <br />
Fum, fum, fum.  <br />

On the twenty-fifth of December<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />
On the twenty-fifth of December<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />
it's Christmas Day,<br />
very important, very important,<br />
when we leave the matins,<br />
we'll make good escudines.<br />
Fum, fum, fum<br />

God give you holy holidays<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />
God give you holy holidays<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />
with cold and hot weather,<br />
and much better, and much better<br />
making Jesus' memory<br />
so that he wants us to glory above.<br />
Fum, fum, fum.<br />
|}

==See also==
* [[List of Christmas carols]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
;Scores
* {{IMSLP2|work=Fum Fum Fum (Anonymous)|cname=Fum, Fum, Fum}}
;Audio
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2opnMO4BzRk A folk version by the Mallorcan band Música nostra],
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jyKnoceH_w A version from València by Paco Muñoz and a children's chorus]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PVRozcVykE Choral version from Barcelona by the Capella de Música de Santa Maria del Pi choral society]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fz16898okg English version by the Jubilate Ensemble, at Christ United Methodist Church, College Station, Texas]

;Text
{{Wikisourcelang|ca|Fum, fum, fum}}
* [http://www.xtec.es/~pcamprub/cant_coral/el25desembre/el25desembre.htm "El vint-i-cinc de desembre"]

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[[Category:Christmas carols]]
[[Category:Year of song unknown]]
[[Category:Music of Catalonia]]