![]() ![]() Another change of mood introduces ‘The Swan’, where the lines of the melody suggest the graceful contours of the swan’s neck, which, despite its many versions, is best heard as the cello solo, while the two pianos magically suggest the ripples and water-drops of river foliage through which the majestic creature glides. The fossils are both real and metaphorical: skeletons from the Danse Macabre jostle with musical relics, which include a Rossini aria and songs such as ‘J’ai du bon tabac’. Flutes, as custom dictates, people the aviary and then, surprisingly, come the ‘Pianists’ practising Czerny-like exercises and reminding the listeners that, for a composer, piano players in a neighbouring apartment are troublesome beasts. The ‘large-eared’ asses make braying sounds but poetry returns with the ‘Cuckoo’, where string passages suggest limitless forests from whose depths the solitary cuckoo sounds. The ‘Aquarium’ is a highly impressionistic piece with its mixture of celeste, piano and violin sounds, which even Debussy might have thought adventurous. The ‘Elephant’ is pure parody with the double-bass lumpenly murdering Berlioz‘s ‘Dance of the Sylphs’, with allusions to Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer‘s Les Patineurs thrown in. In the ‘March of the Lion’, Saint-Saëns specified ‘style persan’ as leonine roars shared the Dorian mode with parts of the Mélodies persanes the ‘Poules et Coqs’ followed the examples of Rameau and other bird noise experts, ‘Hermiones’ employed rapid piano runs to suggest the wild gallops of this somewhat untraceable species, the ‘Tortoises’, represented by the Galop from Offenbach‘s Orpheus in the Underworld played adagio, continue on their obstinate way oblivious to all harmonic obstacles and, in the manner of the fable, reach their goal. The fourteen short movements which comprise Carnival are remarkably varied. ![]() In the book Camille Saint-Saëns: A Life, biographer Brian Rees explains in depth, getting a little technical: Many of these pieces have been widely used in films and video games, particularly “Aquarium”. Le coucou au fond des bois (The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods) Personnages à longues oreilles (Characters with Long Ears) Hémiones – animaux véloces (Wild Asses – quick animals) Introduction et marche royale du lion (Introduction and Royal March of the Lion) The Carnival of the Animals (about 25 minutes long) consists of fourteen movements and a finale: Saint-Saëns conducting his Carnival of the Animals by “Manwill”, Source: Pinterest (Fair use) For this reason, he only gave private performances of the suite to close friends. It is said that Saint-Saëns believed that the humorous fantasy score – which was meant for a small orchestra of two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, harmonium, xylophone and celeste – was too frivolous to be published during his lifetime. ![]() He was, in the words of the prolific Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886), “the world’s greatest organist”.Īn avid traveller, Saint-Saëns wrote his famous musical suite The Carnival of the Animals ( Le carnaval des animaux) while on vacation in Austria in 1886. A prodigy who made his concert debut at the age of 10, the French Romantic composer and conductor Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) studied music at the Paris Conservatory (founded in 1795) and after a career as a church organist and teacher, shot to international fame in the 1880s. ![]()
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