"Marv Pontkalleg" (The Death of Pontcallec) is a traditional "gwerz", included as no. XLVI in "Barzaz Breiz", a book of traditional Breton songs collected in Cornouaille, Brittany, in the 19th century by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué. The death of the Marquis de Pontcallec following a conspiracy against the kingdom of France, is an authentic historical incident recounted by Hersart De La Villemarqué in the "Barzaz Breiz"; this version praises the militant and valiant nobility of his country in opposition to the bourgeoisie. "Marv Pontkalleg" is one of the classics of Breton music, and has been recorded many times by, among others, Gilles Servat, Tri Yann, Alan Stivell, Andrea Ar Gouilh and Jacques Pellen.
Content.
This "gwerz" tells the story of the Marquis de Pontcallec (1679–1720), beheaded on the Place du Bouffay in Nantes in 1720 as the leader of a Breton conspiracy against France. It is divided into four parts:
La Villemarqué's edition.
"Marv Pontkalleg" was first published in the second edition of "Barzaz Breiz" in 1845. La Villemarqué did not name his source for this song, and he long lay under the suspicion of having written it himself. However, its similarities with other Breton ballads on the same subject (29 were counted in 2008) together with the publication of La Villemarqué's notebooks have made it clear that large parts of the "gwerz", at any rate, are authentic. The notes with which his edition is furnished interpret the Pontcallec conspiracy as a nationalist rising by the heroic nobility and peasantry intended to achieve Breton independence. This ahistorical interpretation was repeated by Arthur de la Borderie and later by Jeanne Coroller-Danio and other commentators in the Breton nationalist movement.
* A performance of the song by Gilles Servat also figures on the soundtrack of Bertrand Tavernier's film "Que la fête commence" (1975).
Footnotes.
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