Pat A Pan

For Christmas

Version 5

Words and Music: Guillô, Pran Ton Tamborin, Bernard de la Monnoye, c. 1700 (1641-1728)
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

Translator Rev. Percy Dearmer

1. Willie, take your little drum,
With your whistle, Robin, come.
When we hear the fife and drum,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu, pat-a-pat-a-pan;
When we hear the fife and drum:
Christmas should be frolicsome.

2. Thus the men of olden days
Loved the King of Kings to praise;
When we hear the fife and drum,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu, pat-a-pat-a-pan;
When we hear the fife and drum:
Sure our children won't be dumb!

3. God and man are now become
More at one than fife and drum.
When you hear the fife and drum,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu, pat-a-pat-a-pan;
When you hear the fife and drum:
Dance, and make the village hum!

English Translations on this Site:

• Pat A Pan – Version 1 (Translator Unknown)

• Pat A Pan – Version 2 (Translator Unknown)

• Pat A Pan – Version 3 (Translation by Keyte and Parrott, editors of The New Oxford Book of Carols, copyright 1992)

• Pat A Pan - Version 4 (Willie Take Your Little Drum, From John Brush's 1988 The Children's Book of Carols)

• Pat A Pan - Version 5 (Translation by Percy Dearmer)

• Patapan by David Newman

• Patapan (From Terry's Two Hundred Folk Carols)

• Hob & Cobin, Yule Is Come (George R. Woodward)

• Willie, Take Your Little Drum (Janet E. Tobitt)

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