Je suis encore un chêne: für Gitarre. 318. guitar.

Je suis encore un chêne for guitar The title of the 1995 guitar piece “...je suis encore un chêne...” (“I am still an oak tree”) is taken from the fable “The Oak and the Reed” by Jean Anouilh, who in turn based his 1961 text in verse form upon Lafontaine´s fable in which an oak tree and a reed argue over which is the stronger of the two. The oak, of course, claims to be the stronger for many reasons, but after a storm it lies there uprooted whereas the flexible reed is still standing. AlthoughLafontaine attaches a very clearly recognizable moral to this, Anouilh ends his version with the dying oak proudly maintaining, “But I am still an oak tree!” Schneider´s work also begins with “pride and pain” (according to the playing instructions); there is a great deal of numerical symbolism hidden in it, which also has to do with the composer himself.