La Fontaine

Albert Zabel (1834–1910), principal harpist of the Imperial Russian Opera in St. Petersburg, composed La Fontaine as a sparkling Romantic salon piece and technical showpiece. The work evokes a bubbling fountain through persistent arpeggio figurations, bell-like harmonics, and glissandi that cascade up and down the harp's full range. Though brief, La Fontaine has remained a beloved recital encore and a standard assignment in harp pedagogy, demonstrating the instrument's ability to paint vivid sonic landscapes in the Romantic tradition of Elias Parish Alvars and Félix Godefroid.