Sounding bestiary
French fables set to music for voice and piano.
My wish for more songs by Isabelle Aboulker, expressed on the occasion of one of my last reviews (SMZ 12/2010, p. 35), has been fulfilled: A collection of 16 fables by La Fontaine has been published by Notissimo Editeur (distributed by Alphonse Leduc).
Isabelle Aboulker pulls out all the stops in traditional harmony with changes of meter and tempo to give the trotting animal world a voice. The hare is afraid of staccato, the frog puffs itself up to bursting point in ascending C major, and so on. The speaking voice is often used - especially to place a punch line - which expands the fables into melodramas.
The songs are well suited to the voice throughout, but a quick mouth, comedic flair and impeccable French are required for a successful performance. The demands on the accompaniment lie in the area of grotesque background music and rhythmic flexibility, less in the level of pianistic difficulty.
Unfortunately, the font of the vocal part and especially the text is rather small, so the only option is to memorize it! In addition, you stumble across all kinds of printing errors such as missing stems or dots in the otherwise cleanly designed piano part.
Isabelle Aboulker, La Cigale et le Pot au lait, 16 mélodies pour voix moyenne et piano d'après les Fables de Jean de La Fontaine, NT21970Z, € 18,20, Notissimo Editeur/Alphonse Leduc, Paris 2012
