En Bon punt i en hora bona: presència d'un refrany a la poesia catalana popular de les èpoques moderna i contemporània

Abstract

The Catalan refrain En bon punt i en hora bona, with some variants that do not affect either the rhythm or the general meaning of the expression, is mainly documented in various Christmas carols of the sixteenth and nineteenth to twentieth centuries. Among the oral versions collected in Catalonia, the Alegria de sant Josep and El moliner are particularly noteworthy. As is the case in some other versions of this last song, the ensalada entitled El molino by Chacón, published in 1581, not only develops the motif of the mystical mill, but also includes lines sung in Catalan, like the refrain we examine here. Two poetic chapbooks printed some time around 15581560 include two Catalan carols, the first one by Joan Timoneda («Hui és nat lo redemptor») and the second one by Onofre Almudéver («Puix lo Fill de Déu és nat»). Although these two authors refer to the city of Valencia, there are two anonymous works in Castilian sung to the same tune, printed in Barcelona in 1589 and 1591, whose first lines are «Vos subáis, Virgen señora» and «Que no es no, que ya no es nada». Moreover, Galceran Durall (doc. 15391594) and Father Pere Esteve i Puig (15821658) reuse this refrain in one form or another. Besides contextualizing and underlining the similarities and differences between these versions, we have edited those that we consider most interesting or are the least accessible.