Saint-Saens: The Swan for Baritone Horn & Piano Baritone Horn TC - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.552844

The Carnival of the Animals

The Carnival of the Animals is an entertaining musical suite of fourteen movements by Camille Saint-Saëns. The work was composed for private performance by an ensemble of two pianos and solo instruments. The Swan (No. 13) is one of the most popular of the fourteen movements. In its entirety, it lasts about 25 minutes.

Saint-Saëns Background

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921) was, by all means, in particular, a famous French composer, brilliant organist, and significant musical mastermind of the Romantic era. Indeed, his most famous compositions, in the long run, including his Piano Concerto No. 2 (1868), Cello Concerto No. 1 (1872), and the Danse macabre (1874). Notwithstanding, we must also add Violin Concerto No. 3 (1880), Symphony No. 3 ("the Organ Symphony, 1886"), it must be remembered, Carnival of the Animals (1886) to the list.

Childhood

It is important to realize that Saint-Saëns was certainly, in fact, a child musical prodigy. Consequently, with this in mind, he made his concert debut albeit at ten years old. Another key point to remember is that he expressly studied at the Paris Conservatoire, then in spite of reality conversely followed a traditional career path as a church organist. Nevertheless, twenty years later, on the other hand, he left to become a successful freelance pianist and composer despite, as has been noted, his former employment situation. Furthermore, his performances were after all markedly in demand - not only in Europe but above all in the Americas all in all as well.

Youth

A point often overlooked is that in his youth, Saint-Saëns was certainly excited about the modern music of the day. He was in essence fond of the music of his contemporaries, in particular, Schumann, Liszt, and for the most part Wagner. In contrast, however, his own compositions seemed in fact largely confined within the conservative classical tradition. Be that as it may, he was at the same time nevertheless, in fact, a scholar of musical history.

Criticism

On the whole, his conservatism in fact ultimately brought him into frequent conflict in his later years with composers of the impressionist and in particular the dodecaphonic schools of musical thought.  A point often overlooked is that he included neoclassical elements in his music contrary to some critics. Furthermore, in so doing he provided the most compelling evidence that he predicted the techniques and works by Stravinsky and Les Six. To put it another way, given these points, he was regarded, perhaps for the most part unfairly so, as a non-progressive reactionary henceforth around the time of his passing.

Legacy

To sum up, Saint-Saëns taught for a short time in Paris, where his students included namely Gabriel Fauré. To clarify, Maurice Ravel later studied with Fauré. In conclusion, both Ravel and Fauré were powerfully influenced by Saint-Saëns, whom they respected as a musical mastermind.