Ballade des proverbes

The Ballade des Proverbes is a summary of slogans, even proverbs, which together form a poem. The fixed rhythm attracted De Nef to make it into a rhythmic play between the voices in music: waltz passages in 3/4 and pieces in 6/8 are playfully placed one above the other.

De Nef deliberately opted for an instrumentation for baritone and bass in the male voices to make up for the unfortunately common shortage of tenors.