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From that time onward, every year until his end, a fresh sheaf of from six to a dozen appeared; and, although no name went with them, all of his townsfolk knew that it was their own Troubadour of the Nativity who made them so excellent a gift just as the nougat bells began to ring. The organ of St. Pierre, touched by his master hand, taught the gay airs to which the new noëls were cast.
When the stir caused by the coming and the going of the shepherds had subsided, the mass went on; with no change from the usual observance, until the Sacrament was administered, save that there was a vigorous singing of noëls.
With very few exceptions all Provençal noëls are packed full of the same delightful anachronisms. It is to Provençal shepherds that the Herald Angel appears; it is Provençaux who compose the bregado, the pilgrim company, that starts for Bethlehem; and Bethlehem is a village, always within easy walking distance, here in Provence.
He knew well how to take the popular airs of the moment the gavotte or minuet or vaudeville which every one was singing: the good old airs, as we call them now, which then were the newest of the new and how to infuse into them his own personality and so to fit them like a glove to his own noëls.
I am persuaded, so thoroughly did they all enjoy their own carolling, that the singing of noëls would have gone on until broad daylight had it not been for the intervention of the midnight mass. But the mass of Christmas Eve or, rather, of Christmas morning is a matter not only of pleasure but of obligation.
And, on the other hand, as though to strike a balance between fame and forgottenness, there are some widely popular noëls as "C'est le bon lever" of which the authorship absolutely is unknown; while there are still others as the charming "Wild Nightingale" which belong to no one author, but have been built up by unknown farm-house poets who have added fresh verses and so have passed on the amended song.
But his forays were made from choice, not from necessity, and the best of his noëls are his own. Saboly's music has a "go" and a melodic quality suggestive of the work of Sir Arthur Sullivan; but it has a more tender, a fresher, a purer note, even more sparkle, than ever Sullivan has achieved.
Sometimes, even, the writers stray away entirely from a religious base and produce mere roistering catches or topical songs. Such are those Marseille noëls which are nothing more than Pantagruelian lists of succulent dishes proper to Christmas time frankly ending, in one case, with the materialistic query: "What do I care for the future, now that my belly is well lined?"
By turns, as the humour takes him, his noëls are sermons, or delicate religious fancies, or sharp-pointed satires, or whimsical studies of country-side life. Above all, his noëls are local.
Gradually the storm subsided though not without some fierce after-gusts and at last worked itself off harmlessly in song: as we returned to the ritual of the evening and took to the singing of noëls the Christmas canticles which are sung between the ending of the Great Supper and the beginning of the midnight mass.
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