Conseil tenu par les rats (The Rats’ Council): Florent Schmitt’s humorous take on Jean de la Fontaine’s wry fable (1948-50).

In 1953, Florent Schmitt composed Fables sans morales, settings of four fables taken from Jean de la Fontaine’s writings which the composer scored for a cappella mixed chorus. Interestingly, several years earlier Schmitt had already produced another choral work based a Fontaine fable, titled Conseil tenu par les rats, Op. 123 (The Rats’ Council) – […]

Stretching tonality to the breaking point: Florent Schmitt’s weird and daring Kérob-Shal (1919-24).

Even before the onset of World War I, Florent Schmitt was already known as a pathfinding composer.  Indeed, such works as Psaume XLVII (1904), La Tragédie de Salomé (1907) and the Piano Quintet (1908) had already cemented his reputation as one of the most influential voices among his generation of French composers. But it was during […]