Il Est Bel Et Bon (SSAA) English/French-Renaissance French composer Pierre Passereau was a popular creator of chanson rustiques in Paris and at court the early 1500’s. The songs that survive are almost all of a hearty style with plenty of onomatopoeia double entendres puns and occasional indelicacies employing graceful melody polyphony and sometimes chordal passages.Il es bel et bon has retained popularity almost since it was written. There is evidence that this song was sung as far away as Venice in the 1500's. Here composer Helen Cockburn makes the most of the delightful clucking cuckooing passages and the English words have retained most of the original’s consonants to good effect.

Now available in an SSSA voicing this multicultural piece in the Ron Kean series utilizes sounds from African folk songs. With a myriad of percussion instruments the rhythm is set. A joyful chorus emerges with an occasional solo interjection.