The Carnival of the Animals
The Carnival of the Animals (Le carnaval des animaux in the original French) is a musical suite of 14 movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns.
It was composed in 1886 and was originally scored for a chamber group of flute, clarinet, two pianos, glockenspiel, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, but is usually performed today by a full orchestra. Saint-Saëns, apparently concerned that the piece was too frivolous and likely to harm his reputation as a serious composer, repressed performances of it and only allowed one movement, "The Swan", to be published in his lifetime. It was published after his death, however, and has since become one of his most popular works.
There are fourteen movements:
- Introduction et marche royale du lion (Introduction and Royal March of the Lion)
- Poules et coqs (Hens and Cocks)
- Hémiones (animaux véloces) (Wild Asses)
- Tortues (Tortoises)
- L'éléphant (The Elephant)
- Kangourous (Kangaroos)
- Aquarium
- Personnages a longues oreilles (People with Long Ears)
- Le coucou au fond des bois (The Cuckoo in the Forest)
- Volières (Aviary)
- Pianistes (Pianists)
- Fossiles (Fossils)
- Le cygne (The Swan)
- Finale
As the title suggests, the work follows a zoological program and progresses from the first movement ("Introduction and Royal March of the Lion"), through portraits of elephants and donkeys ("People with Long Ears") to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs. Several of the movements are of humourous intent: "Pianists", for example, depicts piano students clumsily practicing scales, "Tortoises" includes a greatly slowed-down version of the famous Can-Can from Jacques Offenbach's operetta The Tales of Hoffmann, and "L'éléphant" is Hector Berlioz's "Dances des sylphes" played much lower than usual as a double bass solo. "Fossils" quotes Saint-Saëns' own Danse macabre and various traditional French tunes.
The most famous movement is the penultimate one ("The Swan") which is a lyrical cello solo to the accompaniment of one piano. The ballet The Dying Swan is choreographed to this music.
