Lyrics
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,
Certainly we'll dance and sing.
Shepherds glad in ancient days
Gave the King of Kings their praise,
Playing on the fife and drum,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu, pat-a-pat-a-pan,
Playing on the fife and drum,
They made music loud and gay.
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 sing, be glad at heart.
Public domain hymn text (c. 1720). Words attributed to Bernard de La Monnoye.
The Story Behind the Hymn
'Patapan' comes from the Burgundy region of France and is generally attributed to the poet and scholar Bernard de La Monnoye, writing around 1720 in the Burgundian dialect rather than standard French, giving it deep roots in that specific regional folk tradition.
The carol's title and repeated refrain, 'tu-re-lu-re-lu, pat-a-pat-a-pan,' are nonsense syllables meant to imitate the sound of a fife and drum being played, a technique that turns the carol's chorus into a kind of vocal sound effect rather than a statement of meaning.
Its opening verse addresses two village children directly by name, Willie and Robin, inviting them to bring their own ordinary instruments, a drum and a whistle, to join in celebrating Christ's birth, treating humble folk instruments as entirely fitting for sacred celebration.
That choice reflects a broader French noël tradition of picturing the Nativity through the eyes and instruments of ordinary rural villagers rather than through formal liturgical imagery, imagining shepherds and peasant children as active, enthusiastic participants rather than distant observers, a theme carried into the carol's second verse, which pictures shepherds of old giving the King of Kings the same kind of joyful, instrumental praise.
The carol's closing verse makes its theological point directly but briefly, drawing a comparison between the harmony of a fife and drum played together and the new closeness between 'God and man' brought about through the incarnation.
Its driving, percussive rhythm, built to musically imitate an actual drumbeat, made it especially popular for instrumental as well as vocal performance, and it remains a favorite carol for handbell choirs, brass ensembles, and children's Christmas programs specifically because of that rhythmic, imitative quality.
The carol's English-language popularity grew substantially in the twentieth century, and it remains one of the more recognizable French carols performed internationally, valued for its playful, percussive character among otherwise more solemn Christmas repertoire.
