In the Middle Ages, the relationship between man and animal was different from that of today, as both shared a daily life and the same environment. It is not surprising that animals are so often represented and mentioned during this period in historical accounts, fabularies, narratives, etc., in illuminations, on church capitals or in musical works.

It is not surprising, therefore, that by analogy, man used these animal images to teach his fellow human beings about morality, Christian dogma and politics, and subsequently to draw up sometimes virulent satirical portraits of contemporary society. Thus becoming a mirror of man, the animals began to speak and act like humans, delivering symbolic messages that everyone understood.

From Ovid's Metamorphoses, through the Bible, the Roman de Renart and Fauvel, to the more recent Fables of La Fontaine, stereotypical human characters are attached to certain animals: the power and presence of the lion reigning over the animal kingdom, the cunning and deceitfulness of the fox playing tricks, or the insidiousness and falsehood of the snake poisoning the heart and making people deaf and blind, etc.

Maud Haering - soprano
Luc Gaugler - vièle à archet
Olivier Camelin - organetto