Camille Saint-Saëns

The Carnival of the Animals

The Carnival of the Animals () is a humorous musical suite of 14 movements, including "The Swan", by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. About 25 minutes long, it was written for private

History#

After a disastrous concert tour of Germany in 1885–86, Saint-Saëns withdrew to a small Austrian village, where he composed The Carnival of the Animals in February 1886. From the beginning, he regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was “such fun” (). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the École Niedermeyer de Paris, Saint-Saëns specified in his will that the work should be published posthumously. He died in December 1921, and Durand published it in Paris in April 1922; the first public performance was given on 25 February 1922 by the Concerts Colonne, conducted by Gabriel Pierné. It was rapturously received. Le Figaro reported: Its first American performance was by the New York Symphony on 24 October 1922 at the President’s Theater in Washington, DC. Walter Damrosch conducted, and later that month he led additional performances by the Symphony in Philadelphia (26 October) and New York (29 October). The Carnival of the Animals has since become one of Saint-Saëns’s best-known works, in the original version for 11 instruments, or more often with the full string section of an orchestra. Frequently, a glockenspiel substitutes for the rare glass harmonica.

Music#

The suite is scored for two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute (and piccolo), clarinet (C and B), glass harmonica, and xylophone. There are 14 movements, each representing a different animal or animals:

I. (Introduction and Royal March of the Lion)#

Strings and two pianos: the introduction begins with the pianos playing a bold tremolo, under which the strings enter with a stately theme. The pianos play a pair of glissandos going in opposite directions to conclude the first part of the movement. The pianos then introduce a march theme that they carry through most of the rest of the introduction. The strings provide the melody, with the pianos occasionally taking low chromatic scales in octaves which suggest the roar of a lion, or high ostinatos. The two groups of instruments switch places, with the pianos playing a higher, softer version of the melody. The movement ends with a fortissimo note from all the instruments used in this movement. :

II. (Hens and Roosters)#

Violins, viola, two pianos and clarinet: this movement is centered around a “pecking” theme played by the pianos and strings, reminiscent of chickens pecking at grain. The clarinet plays a small solo above the strings; the piano plays a very fast theme based on the rooster’s crowing cry. :

III. (Wild Donkeys (Swift Animals))#

Two pianos: the animals depicted here are quite obviously running, an image induced by the constant, feverishly fast up-and-down motion of both pianos playing figures in octaves. These are dziggetai, donkeys that come from Tibet and are known for their great speed. :

IV. (Tortoises)#

Strings and piano: a satirical movement which opens with a piano playing a pulsing triplet figure in the higher register. The strings play a slow rendition of the famous “Galop infernal” (commonly called the Can-can) from Offenbach’s comic opera Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). :

V. (The Elephant)#

Double bass and piano: this section is marked Allegro pomposo, the great caricature for an elephant. The piano plays a waltz-like triplet figure while the bass hums the melody beneath it. Like “Tortues”, this is also a musical joke—the thematic material is taken from the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Berlioz’s “Dance of the Sylphs” from The Damnation of Faust. The two themes were both originally written for high, lighter-toned instruments (flute and various other woodwinds, and violin, accordingly); the joke is that Saint-Saëns moves this to the lowest and heaviest-sounding instrument in the orchestra, the double bass. :

VI. (Kangaroos)#

Two pianos: the main figure here is a pattern of “hopping” chords (made up of triads in various positions) preceded by grace notes in the right hand. When the chords ascend, they quickly get faster and louder, and when the chords descend, they quickly get slower and softer. :

VII. Aquarium#

: Violins, viola, cello (string quartet), two pianos, flute, and glass harmonica. The melody is played by the flute, backed by the strings, and glass harmonica on top of sparkling, glissando-like runs and arpeggios in pianos. These figures, plus the occasional glissando from the glass harmonica towards the end—often played on celesta or glockenspiel—are evocative of a peaceful, dimly lit aquarium. :

VIII. (Characters with Long Ears)#

Two violins: this is the shortest movement. The violins alternate playing high, loud notes and low, buzzing ones (in the manner of a donkey’s braying “hee-haw”). Critics have speculated that the movement is meant to compare music critics to braying donkeys. :

IX. (The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods)#

Two pianos and clarinet: the pianos play large, soft chords while the clarinet plays a single two-note ostinato; a C and an A, mimicking the call of a cuckoo bird. Saint-Saëns writes in the score that the clarinettist should be offstage. :

X. (Aviary)#

Strings, pianos and flute: the high strings take on a background role, providing a buzz in the background reminiscent of the background noise in a jungle. The cellos and basses play a pickup cadence to lead into most of the measures. The flute takes the part of the bird, with a trilling tune that spans much of its range. The pianos provide occasional pings and trills of other birds in the background. The movement ends very quietly after a long ascending chromatic scale from the flute. :

XI. (Pianists)#

Strings and two pianos: this humorous movement (satirizing pianists as animals) is a glimpse of what few audiences ever get to see: the pianists practicing their finger exercises and scales. The scales of C, D, D and E are covered. Each starts with a trill on the first and second note, then proceeds in scales with a few changes in the rhythm. Transitions between keys are accomplished with a blasting chord from all the instruments between scales. In some performances, the later, more difficult, scales are deliberately played increasingly out of time. The original edition has an editor’s note instructing the players to imitate beginners and their awkwardness. After the four scales, the key changes back to C, and the pianos play a moderate speed trill-like pattern in thirds, in the style of Charles-Louis Hanon or Carl Czerny, while the strings play a small part underneath. This movement is unusual in that the last three blasted chords do not resolve the piece, but rather lead into the next movement. :

XII. (Fossils)#

: Strings, two pianos, clarinet, and xylophone: here, Saint-Saëns mimics his Danse macabre, which makes heavy use of the xylophone to evoke skeletons dancing, the bones clacking together to the beat. The musical themes of Danse macabre are also quoted; the xylophone and strings play much of the melody, alternating with the piano and clarinet. Allusions to “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” (better known in the English-speaking world as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”), the French nursery rhymes “Au clair de la lune”, and “J’ai du bon tabac” (the second piano plays the same melody upside down inversion ), the popular anthem “Partant pour la Syrie”, and the aria “Una voce poco fa” from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville can also be heard. The October 1922 program note for Walter Damrosch’s performance with the New York Symphony—he had led the U.S. premiere days earlier—explained the title: “These are well-known tunes of which the composer himself had presumably grown tired.” The musical joke in this movement, according to Leonard Bernstein’s narration on his 1960s recording of the work with the New York Philharmonic, is that the musical pieces quoted are the fossils of Saint-Saëns’s time. :

XIII. (The Swan)#

Two pianos and cello: a slowly moving cello melody (which evokes a swan gliding over water) is played over rippling sixteenths in one piano and rolled chords in the other. A staple of the cello repertoire, this is one of the suite’s best-known movements, usually in the version for cello with solo piano. It was the only movement of the suite published in Saint-Saëns’s lifetime. A short ballet solo, The Dying Swan, was choreographed in 1905 by Mikhail Fokine to this movement and performed by Anna Pavlova, who gave some 4,000 performances of the dance and “swept the world”. :

XIV. (Finale)#

Full ensemble: the finale opens on the same trills in the pianos as in the introduction, but soon the wind instruments, the glass harmonica and the xylophone join in. The strings build the tension with a few low notes, leading to glissandi by the piano before the lively main melody is introduced. The Finale is somewhat reminiscent of an American carnival of the 19th century, with one piano always maintaining a bouncy eighth-note rhythm. Although the melody is relatively simple, the supporting harmonies are ornamented in the style typical of Saint-Saëns’ piano works—dazzling scales, glissandi, and trills. Many of the previous movements are quoted. The work ends with a series of six “Hee Haws” from the donkeys, as if to say that the donkey has the last laugh, before the final strong group of C major chords. :

Musical allusions#

As the title suggests, the work is programmatical and zoological. It progresses from the first movement, , through portraits of elephants and donkeys (“Personages with Long Ears”) to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs. Several of the movements are of humorous intent: * uses the theme of Rameau’s harpsichord piece (“The Hen”) from his Suite in G major, but in a less elegant mood. * uses a theme from Berlioz’s “Danse des sylphes” (from his work The Damnation of Faust) played in a much lower register than usual as a double bass solo. The piece also quotes the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. * The section is thought to be directed at music critics: they are also supposedly the last animals heard during the finale, braying. * depicts piano students labouring over their scales in Hanon- and Czerny-style exercises. * quotes Saint-Saëns’s own as well as three nursery rhymes, , (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) and , also the song “Partant pour la Syrie” and Rossini’s aria, “Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville.

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns