Charles-Camille Saint-SaĆ«ns ( 1835 – 1921)
However my discovery about him was late, I discovered about him since I started watching figure skating.
Even though I had heard his famous music “ The Swan “ before, I didn’t know Saint Saens was the composer of this beautiful music.
I had thought this music was by Tchaikovsky, and that it was a part of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet music “ Swan Lake “.
I don’t know why I got such an idea and had been believing that without checking who is the composer of “ The Swan “.
Maybe I was making my own original story in my mind about “The Swan“.
The first time I discovered about Saint-Saens was since I watched Johnny Weir’s 2004 - 2005 short program performance “ Rondo Capriccioso “ , this program is one of my top favorites of his performances ( 2004 TEB France) and I really loved the music, so I finally checked the composer of the music and learned that it was composed by Camille Saint Saens.
And soon after I found out that “ The Swan” was also composed by him, not Tchaikovsky.
Later in 2009 Skating World championship , I saw Miki Ando’s great World’s performance to Saint Saens “ Organ Symphony “ and also Yu Na Kim’s awesome winning performance to the incredible Saint Saens composition “ Danse Macabre “.
I started thinking, who is this great composer that I’ve never heard of before, and why isn’t he more well known ?
So I started researching about him.
Here is what I found,
His music and interests
Charles-Camille Saint-SaĆ«ns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French Late-Romantic composer, pianist, organist and conductor.
He is known especially for The Swan ( from his musical suite called Carnival of the Animals ), Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No 2 , Cello Concerto No 2 ,Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his Symphony No 3 “ Organ Symphony “
He was close friends with composers Franz Liszt, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Gabriel Faure.
Saint Saens possessed huge talent as a musician and he devoted himself to almost every aspect of music during a long life of 86 years.
Saint-Saƫns' music is technically very difficult and requires the skills of a virtuoso.
He composed a huge number of works in almost every category of music ( piano, chamber, choral, ballet, song, opera, symphony, concerto, etc ).
He was active as a pianist, organist, conductor, teacher and critic.
He also wrote poetry and plays and had lively interests in languages, history and science.
His remarkable piano playing was marked by extraordinarily even scales and passagework, great speed, and demonstrated a remarkable fluidity of phrasing and a lucid tone.
He was one of the most skilled orchestrators of the 19th century, and had a masterful feel for orchestral color .
His superb piano technique even excited the admiration of legendary piano virtuoso, Franz Liszt.
Saint-Saƫns was also a multi-faceted intellectual. He was an expert at mathematics. He was also a prolific writer and produced poems, works on science, astronomy, travel and history.
Beginnings of a Music Prodigy
At about age two, Saint-Saƫns was found to possess perfect music pitch, and his mother and aunt started teaching him piano.
His first public concert appearance occurred when he was only five years old, when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata.
At ten years of age, Saint-SaĆ«ns gave his debut public recital with a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto N 15 in B - flat major, and various pieces by Handel, Kalkbrenner, Hummel and Bach .
As an encore, Saint-Saƫns offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. This incredible concert made news around Europe and across the world , even as far as the United States where an article about it appeared in a Boston newspaper.
Danse Macabre
Saint Saens composed one of his most famous pieces , Danse Macabre, opus 40, in 1874
In this piece Saint Saens makes use of unique and unusual chords and tuning.
The opening melody is played by a solo violin with its E-string tuned to an E-flat in an example of scordatura tuning.
Later in the piece, the full orchestra joins in on the main melody on the descending scale.
The piece becomes more energetic and climaxes with the full orchestra playing very strong dynamics.
Strongly influenced by Franz Liszt, whom he met in 1852,
Saint-Saƫns was among the earliest admirers of Liszt to compose a symphonic poem, and the Danse Macabre is perhaps the best-known of his four works in the genre.
Liszt was so impressed with this piece that he made a virtuoso transcription of Danse Macabre for piano, from memory, shortly after hearing Danse Macabre for the first time in 1874.
Lizst was a great friend to Saint Saens and promoted his music— for example, Liszt often played Danse Macabre in his concerts and also arranged for “ Samson et Dalila” to be staged at Weimar —and Saint-SaĆ«ns introduced much of Liszt’s orchestral music to French audiences for the first time.
Liszt dedicated his Second Mephisto Waltz to Saint-Saƫns, who wrote his Third Symphony for Liszt, and dedicated it to his memory.
His personal Life
In his personal life, Saint-Saƫns married Marie Laure Emile Truffot in 1875. They had two sons, both of whom died in 1878, within six weeks of each other
In his later years he traveled around the world, visiting exotic locations in Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Saint-Saƫns wrote about his travels in many popular books.
He wrote under a different name as an author, using the name, Sannois.
Saint-Saƫns died of pneumonia on 16 December 1921.
My fascination about Saint Saens
When it comes to Camille Saint Saens, this amazingly multi-talented person sounds like everything was easy for him, whatever he tried, and it seems apparent that both his left brain ( logic ) and right brain ( imagination, creativity ) were really well-balanced.
He almost sounds like an out of this world person, like coming from another dimension or something.
How is it possible that this kind of multi-topic talented genius existed ?
If I could find something about his struggle to create something, doing hard work, I could feel more like he is also human being, but it’s actually difficult to relate to this type of genius.
His music gives me great power for my life, especially his " Danse Macabre " gives me incredible power and energy, but as a person he may be too genius to relate to.
Composing incredible music sounds easy for him, he once said “ I produce music the way apple trees produce apples “.
Some of his music sounds playful and almost like teasing, and his creativity sounds effortless.
Another thing about him is that he looked very healthy in every photo and painting I’ve seen of him from the time he was young to older. And he also lived the longest of all the other famous composers.
He must have been very smart at living, too.
Calimille Saint-Saens is my favorite French composer of The Romantic Era.
However my discovery about him was late, I discovered about him since I started watching figure skating.
Even though I had heard his famous music “ The Swan “ before, I didn’t know Saint Saens was the composer of this beautiful music.
I had thought this music was by Tchaikovsky, and that it was a part of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet music “ Swan Lake “.
I don’t know why I got such an idea and had been believing that without checking who is the composer of “ The Swan “.
Maybe I was making my own original story in my mind about “The Swan“.
The first time I discovered about Saint-Saens was since I watched Johnny Weir’s 2004 - 2005 short program performance “ Rondo Capriccioso “ , this program is one of my top favorites of his performances ( 2004 TEB France) and I really loved the music, so I finally checked the composer of the music and learned that it was composed by Camille Saint Saens.
And soon after I found out that “ The Swan” was also composed by him, not Tchaikovsky.
Later in 2009 Skating World championship , I saw Miki Ando’s great World’s performance to Saint Saens “ Organ Symphony “ and also Yu Na Kim’s awesome winning performance to the incredible Saint Saens composition “ Danse Macabre “.
I started thinking, who is this great composer that I’ve never heard of before, and why isn’t he more well known ?
So I started researching about him.
Here is what I found,
His music and interests
Charles-Camille Saint-SaĆ«ns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French Late-Romantic composer, pianist, organist and conductor.
He is known especially for The Swan ( from his musical suite called Carnival of the Animals ), Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No 2 , Cello Concerto No 2 ,Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his Symphony No 3 “ Organ Symphony “
He was close friends with composers Franz Liszt, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Gabriel Faure.
Saint Saens possessed huge talent as a musician and he devoted himself to almost every aspect of music during a long life of 86 years.
Saint-Saƫns' music is technically very difficult and requires the skills of a virtuoso.
He composed a huge number of works in almost every category of music ( piano, chamber, choral, ballet, song, opera, symphony, concerto, etc ).
He was active as a pianist, organist, conductor, teacher and critic.
He also wrote poetry and plays and had lively interests in languages, history and science.
His remarkable piano playing was marked by extraordinarily even scales and passagework, great speed, and demonstrated a remarkable fluidity of phrasing and a lucid tone.
He was one of the most skilled orchestrators of the 19th century, and had a masterful feel for orchestral color .
His superb piano technique even excited the admiration of legendary piano virtuoso, Franz Liszt.
Saint-Saƫns was also a multi-faceted intellectual. He was an expert at mathematics. He was also a prolific writer and produced poems, works on science, astronomy, travel and history.
Beginnings of a Music Prodigy
At about age two, Saint-Saƫns was found to possess perfect music pitch, and his mother and aunt started teaching him piano.
His first public concert appearance occurred when he was only five years old, when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata.
At ten years of age, Saint-SaĆ«ns gave his debut public recital with a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto N 15 in B - flat major, and various pieces by Handel, Kalkbrenner, Hummel and Bach .
As an encore, Saint-Saƫns offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. This incredible concert made news around Europe and across the world , even as far as the United States where an article about it appeared in a Boston newspaper.
Danse Macabre
Saint Saens composed one of his most famous pieces , Danse Macabre, opus 40, in 1874
In this piece Saint Saens makes use of unique and unusual chords and tuning.
The opening melody is played by a solo violin with its E-string tuned to an E-flat in an example of scordatura tuning.
Later in the piece, the full orchestra joins in on the main melody on the descending scale.
The piece becomes more energetic and climaxes with the full orchestra playing very strong dynamics.
Strongly influenced by Franz Liszt, whom he met in 1852,
Saint-Saƫns was among the earliest admirers of Liszt to compose a symphonic poem, and the Danse Macabre is perhaps the best-known of his four works in the genre.
Liszt was so impressed with this piece that he made a virtuoso transcription of Danse Macabre for piano, from memory, shortly after hearing Danse Macabre for the first time in 1874.
Lizst was a great friend to Saint Saens and promoted his music— for example, Liszt often played Danse Macabre in his concerts and also arranged for “ Samson et Dalila” to be staged at Weimar —and Saint-SaĆ«ns introduced much of Liszt’s orchestral music to French audiences for the first time.
Liszt dedicated his Second Mephisto Waltz to Saint-Saƫns, who wrote his Third Symphony for Liszt, and dedicated it to his memory.
His personal Life
In his personal life, Saint-Saƫns married Marie Laure Emile Truffot in 1875. They had two sons, both of whom died in 1878, within six weeks of each other
In his later years he traveled around the world, visiting exotic locations in Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Saint-Saƫns wrote about his travels in many popular books.
He wrote under a different name as an author, using the name, Sannois.
Saint-Saƫns died of pneumonia on 16 December 1921.
My fascination about Saint Saens
When it comes to Camille Saint Saens, this amazingly multi-talented person sounds like everything was easy for him, whatever he tried, and it seems apparent that both his left brain ( logic ) and right brain ( imagination, creativity ) were really well-balanced.
He almost sounds like an out of this world person, like coming from another dimension or something.
How is it possible that this kind of multi-topic talented genius existed ?
If I could find something about his struggle to create something, doing hard work, I could feel more like he is also human being, but it’s actually difficult to relate to this type of genius.
His music gives me great power for my life, especially his " Danse Macabre " gives me incredible power and energy, but as a person he may be too genius to relate to.
Composing incredible music sounds easy for him, he once said “ I produce music the way apple trees produce apples “.
Some of his music sounds playful and almost like teasing, and his creativity sounds effortless.
Another thing about him is that he looked very healthy in every photo and painting I’ve seen of him from the time he was young to older. And he also lived the longest of all the other famous composers.
He must have been very smart at living, too.
My favorite Saint Saens music so far :
- Danse Macabre
- The Swan
- Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
- Violin Concerto No 3 in B minor
- Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor
- Piano Concerto No 4 in C minor
- Symphony No 3 in C minor
- Samson and Delilah