Le loup et l'agneau

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"I was enchanted by Christine Renaudat’s recording of her daughter aged 9 reciting Jean De La Fontaine’s version of the old Aesop’s Fable - The Wolf and the Lamb. Her daughter was born in Colombia and Christine home schooled her in French. She was teaching her all about her homeland of France talking about animals she could “barely imagine” (wolves and sheep) and learning the names of the French rivers, plants and the seasons,. As part of the course, she recorded her daughter in Cartagena reciting this story that she had learnt as a child.
"The lovely idea of passing on skills, knowledge and memories from our past to our children is a very beautiful part of them understanding, allowing them in turn pass on their heritage and traditions.
"Finding the translation of the poem (see below) and the moral of the fable that “The tyrant can always find an excuse for his tyranny and that the unjust will not listen to the reasoning of the innocent”, I knew that this powerful story might relate to millions of people in the world being displaced and forced to migrate from their homeland by tyrannical regimes.
"I wanted the piece to feel like an old story being told, that leads the listener through an imaginary landscape to a dramatic ending. The child’s voice was so beautiful that I wanted to keep the narration of the vocal as it was - if you listen closely you can hear the birds singing in the background. I used several reverbs on the voice and inserted music between phrases to extend the track.
"The piece starts with a solo violin and leads the listener through an imaginary landscape. The harmony is folk like in its simplicity with a simple piano like ostinato, whilst the melodies are deliberately emotional to evoke a sense of vulnerability and dark power. Cello solos are featured between the storytelling to add to the emotion, supported by slow moving string parts. Layers of agitated strings with grainy swells add to the drama as the piece builds to the climax when the wolf carries the lamb into the woods “and then eats him without any other why or wherefore”.
"Here is a translation of The Wolf and the Lamb by Jean de La Fontaine:
The reason of those best able to have their way is always the best:
We now show how this is true. A lamb was quenching its thirst
In the water of a pure stream.
A fasting wolf came by, looking for something;
He was attracted by hunger to this place.
—What makes you so bold as to meddle with my drinking?
Said this animal, very angry.
You will be punished for your boldness.
—Sir, answered the lamb, let Your Majesty
Not put himself into a rage;
But rather, let him consider
That I am taking a drink of water
In the stream
More than twenty steps below him;
And that, consequently, in no way,
Am I troubling his supply.
—You do trouble it, answered the cruel beast.
And I know you said bad things of me last year.
—How could I do that when I wasn’t born,
Answered the lamb; I am still at my mother’s breast.
—If it wasn’t you, then it was your brother.
—I haven’t a brother.—It was then someone close to you;
For you have no sympathy for me,
You, your shepherds and your dogs.
I have been told of this. I have to make things even.
Saying this, into the woods
The wolf carries the lamb, and then eats him
Without any other why or wherefore."
Cartagena poetry reading reimagined by Amanda Stuart.
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration