Patapan (or Pat-a-Pan) is the French equivalent of “The Little Drummer Boy” excepting it came several hundred years earlier. I’ve loved this carol ever since I was a child (and the “Little Drummer Boy” as well), but I’ve never been won over by the traditional English translation of the French (originally Burgundian dialect) lyrics. So, I tweaked it poetically back in 2004 when I was working on my children’s Christmas songbook, “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem.” This arrangement uses those modified lyrics and is loosely based on the arrangement in that book, except it is way more exciting in SATB acappella:

• Patapan | Pat-a-Pan : Free Sheet Music PDF
• Patapan | Pat-a-Pan : Midi Realization MP3

Here is my revised version of the English lyrics:

Willie, take your little drum,
With your whistle, Robin, come.
When we hear the fife and drum,
Turelurelu, patapatapan;
When we hear the fife and drum:
Make your Christmas frolicsome!

Thus the men of olden days
Loved the King of Kings to praise;
When we hear the fife and drum,
Turelurelu, patapatapan;
When we hear the fife and drum:
Let your joyful voices hum!

God and man are now become
More at one than fife and drum,
Listen to this fife and drum,
Turelurelu, patapatapan;
Listen to this fife and drum,
And you never will succumb.