Camille Saint-saëns was born in Paris on October 9, 1835. He was
extraordinarily precocious. After some piano instruction from his aunt
he gave a remarkable concert in Paris in his ninth year A comprehensive
period of study followed at the Paris Conservatory where he won several
prizes, though never the Prix de Rome. In 1852 he received a prize for
_Ode à Sainte Cécile_, and in 1853 the première of his first symphony
attracted considerable praise. From 1858 to 1877 he was the organist of
the Madeleine Church in Paris, a position in which he achieved renown as
a performer on the organ. From 1861 to 1865 he was an eminent teacher of
the piano at the École Niedermeyer, and in 1871 he helped organize the
distinguished Société Nationale in Paris devoted to the introduction of
new music by French composers. From 1877 his principal activity was
composition in which, as in all the other areas in which he had been
engaged, he soon became an outstanding figure. He was made Chevalier of
the Legion of Honor in 1868; Officer in 1884; Grand Officer in 1900; and
in 1913 the highest rank in the Legion of Honor, the Grand-Croix. He
became a member of the Institut de France in 1881. Saint-Saëns paid his
first visit to the United States in 1906, and made his first tour of
South America in 1916 when he was eighty-one. He remained active until
the end of his long life, appearing as pianist and conductor in a
Saint-Saëns festival in Greece in 1920, and performing a concert of his
own music in Dieppe a year later. He was vacationing in Algiers when he
died there on December 16, 1921.
Though Saint-Saëns lived well into the 20th century and was witness to
the radical departures in musical composition taking place all about
him, he remained a conservative to the end of his days. He was, from a
technical point of view, a master. There is no field of musical
composition which he did not cultivate with the most consummate skill
and the best possible taste. He was gifted not merely with a fine
lyrical gift but also at other times with passion, intensity, and a
sardonic wit. He wrote numerous compositions in a light style, but many
of his most serious efforts are readily assimilable at first hearing and
readily fall into the category of semi-classics.
_The Carnival of Animals_ (_Le Carnaval des animaux_), for two pianos
and orchestra (1886) finds the composer in a gay mood. This is witty,
ironic and at times satiric music. The composer regarded the writing of
this work as a lark, thought so little of the composition that he did
not permit a public performance or a publication during his lifetime.
Nevertheless it is one of the composer’s most infectious compositions,
one that never fails to enchant audiences young and old. It was
described by the composer as “a grand zoological fantasy,” and its
fourteen sections represent pictures of various animals. The suite
begins with a march (“Introduction and Royal March of the Lion,”
“_L’Introduction et marche royale du lion_”). After a brief fanfare,
sprightly march music is heard. We can readily guess who is at the head
of the parade by the lion’s roar simulated by the orchestra. After this
we are given a picture of a hen through the cackle in piano and strings,
and of a cock through a clarinet call (“Hens and Cocks,” “_Poules et
coqs_”). This is followed by music for two unaccompanied pianos intended
to depict “Mules” (“_Hémiones_”). Actually this portion was planned by
the composer as a satire on pianists who insist on playing everything in
a strict rhythm and unchanging dynamics. In the fourth movement,
“Tortoises” (“_Tortues_”), two amusing quotations are interpolated from
Offenbach’s _Orpheus in the Underworld_. A cumbersome melody in a
stately rhythm then introduces us to the “Elephant” (“_L’Eléphant_”). In
this part the composer’s fine feeling for paradox and incongruity
asserts itself in contrasting a ponderous theme with a graceful waltz
tune. In the halting music of the next movement, “Kangaroos”
(“_Kangourous_”), the composer aims his satirical barbs not on these
graceless animals but upon concert audiences who insist on talking
throughout a performance. “Aquarium” consists of a sensitive melody for
flute and violin against piano arpeggio figures. In “Personages With
Long Ears” (“_Personnages à longues oreilles_”) donkeys are represented
by a melody with leaping intervals. The “Cuckoo in the Woods” (“_Le
Coucou au fonds des bois_”) consists of a melody for clarinet. “Aviary”
(“_Volière_”) reproduces the flight and singing of birds. “Pianists”
(“_Pianistes_”), the composer feels, belongs to the animal kingdom; the
attempt by embryo pianists to master his scales is here described
amusingly. “Fossils” (“_Fossiles_”) quotes four popular themes from the
classics: from Rossini’s _The Barber of Seville_, Saint-Saëns’ _Danse
macabre_, and two French folk songs. Satire and wit are replaced by the
most sensitive lyricism and winning sentiment in the thirteenth
movement, a section so famous that it is most often heard apart from the
rest of the suite, and in many different versions and arrangements. This
is the movement of “The Swan” (“_Le Cygne_”), a beautiful melody for the
cello in which the stately movement of the swan in the water is
interpreted. A dance inspired by this music was made world famous by
Anna Pavlova. The suite ends with the return of all the preceding
characters in a section entitled “Finale.” In the present-day concert
hall, it is sometimes the practice to present _The Carnival of Animals_
with an appropriate superimposed commentary in verse by Ogden Nash
preceding each section.
_Danse macabre_, tone poem for orchestra, op. 40 (1874) is a musical
interpretation of a poem by Henri Cazalis. The composition opens with a
brief sequence in the harp suggesting that the hour of midnight has
struck. Death tunes his violin and almost at once there begins a
demoniac dance, its abandoned theme first presented by the flute.
Another equally frenetic dance tune is given by Death, the xylophone
simulating the rattle of bones. In the midst of the orgy the solemn
refrain of the “Dies Irae” is sounded. Dawn is announced by the crowing
of a cock. The wild dance dies down and the dancers disappear in the
mist.
_The Deluge_ (_Le Déluge_), op. 45 (1876), is an orchestral prelude to a
Biblical poem, text by Louis Gillet. The inspiration for this music
comes from a passage in the _Genesis_: “And God repented of having
created the world.” Solemn chords preface a fugal passage built from a
theme in violas. After this a beautiful melody for solo violin unfolds
symbolizing humanity in its original state of purity.
The _Havanaise_, op. 83 (1887) is a popular composition for violin and
piano which makes effective use of a languorous Spanish melody set
against the habanera rhythm. “Havanaise” is the French term for
“Habanera,” a popular Spanish dance in slow ²/₄ time said to have
originated in Cuba.
_Henry VIII_, an opera, is remembered for its effective ballet music.
The opera, with libretto by Leonce Detroyat and Armand Sylvestre was
first performed at the Paris Opéra on March 5, 1883. Since its setting
is England during the Tudor Period, the popular ballet music is
restrained, sensitive and graceful. It is heard in the second act during
a festival given by the King of Richmond to honor the Papal Legate. Much
of the material for these dances was acquired by the composer from a
collection of Scottish and Irish tunes and dances provided him by the
wife of one of his librettists. The Ballet Music is made up of five
sections. The first is a restrained Introduction. Then comes “The Entry
of the Clans.” This music, it is amusing to remark, is English rather
than Scottish in style because the composer confused the English Dee
with the Scottish river of the same name and decided to use the English
melody “The Miller of the Dee.” The third movement is a “Scotch Idyll,”
this time a bright Scottish tune in the oboe. The Ballet Music continues
with a “Gypsy Dance” in which a Hungarian-type melody for English horn
is followed by brisker music whose main subject is offered by the
violins. The suite concludes with “Gigue and Finale.”
The _Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso_, op. 28 (1863) is for violin
and orchestra. The main theme of the Introduction is found in the solo
violin in the second measure, accompanied by the strings. A forceful
chord for full orchestra brings on the Rondo Capriccioso section, whose
main melody is presented by the solo violin. The solo instrument later
on also introduces a contrasting second theme. After some embellishment
of both ideas, the orchestra loudly interpolates a third subject which
is repeated by the solo violin. All this material is amplified, often
with brilliant virtuoso passages in the violin. A climactic point is
reached when the first theme of the Rondo Capriccioso is pronounced by
the orchestra against broken chords in the violin. This composition
concludes with a coda marked by virtuoso passages for the solo
instrument.
The _Marche heroïque_, for orchestra, op. 34 (1871) was originally
written for two solo pianos but later the same year orchestrated by the
composer himself. The composition is dedicated to one of Saint-Saëns’
friends, the painter Alexandre Regnault, who served in the French army
and was killed during the Franco-Prussian War. This music has a
seven-bar introduction following which the principal march subject is
given by the woodwind accompanied by plucked strings. In the middle trio
section a contrasting theme is offered by the trombone against an
accompanying figure taken from the earlier march melody. The march music
returns in the closing section, but more vigorously than heretofore. The
composition ends with a powerful coda.
_Le Rouet d’Omphale_ (_Omphale’s Spinning Wheel_), is an orchestral tone
poem, op. 31 (1871), based on an old legend. Hercules is the slave of
the Lydian queen. He disguises himself as a woman and is put to the task
of spinning. The whirr of the spinning wheel is simulated by the violins
at the beginning of the composition. The abused Hercules is then
represented by a somber subject for the bass. Soon the whirr returns in
an increased tempo to point up Hercules’ return to the business of
spinning.
The composer’s most famous opera, _Samson and Delilah_, is represented
on semi-classical programs with its colorful, exciting _Bacchanale_. The
opera was first performed in Weimar in 1877, its libretto (by Ferdinand
Lemaire) based on the famous Biblical story. The Bacchanale comes
towards the end of the opera, the second scene of the third act. At the
Temple of Dagon, the Philistines are celebrating their victory over
Samson and the Hebrews with wild revelry in front of a statue of their
god. A part of these festivities consists of a bacchanale to wild music
Semitic in melodic content, orgiastic in tone colors, and barbaric in
rhythms. The most celebrated vocal selection from this opera is
Delilah’s seductive song to Samson, “My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice” (“_Mon
coeur s’ouvre à ta voix_”).
The _Suite algérienne_, for orchestra, op. 60, is a set of four
“picturesque impressions of a voyage to Algeria,” in the composer’s own
description. The opening movement is a prelude. The sea is here depicted
in a swelling figure while brief snatches of melody suggest some of the
sights of Algiers as seen from aboard ship. “Moorish Rhapsody”
(“_Rapsodie mauresque_”) is made up of three sections. The first and
last are brilliant in sonority and tonal colors, while the middle one is
an Oriental song. “An Evening Dream at Blidah” (“_Rêverie du soir_”) is
a dreamy nocturne picturing a famous Algerian fortress. The most popular
movement of the suite is the last one, a rousing “French Military March”
(“_Marche militaire française_”)—vigorous, at times even majestic, music
representing the composer’s delight and sense of security in coming upon
a French garrison.