Claude Debussy’s romance “L’âme évaporée et souffrante” is a setting of Paul Bourget’s “Romance” from the collection Les aveux (1882). The song was first published in 1891 with “Les cloches”, but had probably been composed earlier in 1885. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD “Kennst du das Land ...” (Carus 83.495).