Song library
Browse piano sheets by Camille Saint-Saëns on Zen Virtual Piano. 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. It is a humorous musical suite of 14 movements, including “The Swan,” about 25 minutes long and written for private performance by two pianos and chamber ensemble; Saint-Saëns prohibited public performance of the work during his lifetime and specified in his will that it should be published posthumously. He died in December 1921, and Durand published it in Paris in April 1922. His Symphony No. 3, also of 1886, was dedicated to the memory of Liszt and made skilled use of the organ and two pianos. A humorous suite withheld from public performance in his lifetime, in the same year as a symphony for organ and two pianos dedicated to Liszt’s memory, shows two very different sides of one year’s work. Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris on October 9, 1835, and died in Algiers on December 16, 1921. A child prodigy on the piano, he gave his first recital in 1846, studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory, and had his Symphony No. 1 performed in 1855. In 1857 he became organist at the famed Church of the Madeleine in Paris, an association that lasted 20 years, and Liszt, with whom he formed an enduring friendship, described him as the finest organist in the world. Liszt’s verdict that he was the finest organist in the world gives a prodigy’s early promise a striking endorsement. From 1861 to 1865 he was professor of piano at the Niedermeyer School, where his pupils included Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, and in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, he helped found the National Society of Music, which promoted performances of the most significant French orchestral works of the succeeding generation. His opera Samson et Dalila, rejected in Paris because of the prejudice against portraying biblical characters on the stage, was given in German at Weimar in 1877 on the recommendation of Liszt. Rejection in Paris and a German-language performance at Weimar on a friend’s recommendation show how much an opera’s fate could depend on who was willing to vouch for it. Dedicating a symphony to a friend’s memory and recommending his opera to Weimar make Liszt a recurring presence in the story. Though he lived through the period of Wagner’s influence, he remained unaffected by it and adhered to classical models. Remaining unaffected by Wagner’s influence while writing humorous animal music for private performance gives the impression of a composer comfortable going his own way.
Browse piano sheets by Camille Saint-Saëns on Zen Virtual Piano.
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. It is a humorous musical suite of 14 movements, including “The Swan,” about 25 minutes long and written for private performance by two pianos and chamber ensemble; Saint-Saëns prohibited public performance of the work during his lifetime and specified in his will that it should be published posthumously. He died in December 1921, and Durand published it in Paris in April 1922. His Symphony No. 3, also of 1886, was dedicated to the memory of Liszt and made skilled use of the organ and two pianos. A humorous suite withheld from public performance in his lifetime, in the same year as a symphony for organ and two pianos dedicated to Liszt’s memory, shows two very different sides of one year’s work.
Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris on October 9, 1835, and died in Algiers on December 16, 1921. A child prodigy on the piano, he gave his first recital in 1846, studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory, and had his Symphony No. 1 performed in 1855. In 1857 he became organist at the famed Church of the Madeleine in Paris, an association that lasted 20 years, and Liszt, with whom he formed an enduring friendship, described him as the finest organist in the world. Liszt’s verdict that he was the finest organist in the world gives a prodigy’s early promise a striking endorsement.
From 1861 to 1865 he was professor of piano at the Niedermeyer School, where his pupils included Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, and in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, he helped found the National Society of Music, which promoted performances of the most significant French orchestral works of the succeeding generation. His opera Samson et Dalila, rejected in Paris because of the prejudice against portraying biblical characters on the stage, was given in German at Weimar in 1877 on the recommendation of Liszt. Rejection in Paris and a German-language performance at Weimar on a friend’s recommendation show how much an opera’s fate could depend on who was willing to vouch for it. Dedicating a symphony to a friend’s memory and recommending his opera to Weimar make Liszt a recurring presence in the story.
Though he lived through the period of Wagner’s influence, he remained unaffected by it and adhered to classical models. Remaining unaffected by Wagner’s influence while writing humorous animal music for private performance gives the impression of a composer comfortable going his own way.
Search the library
Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Common questions
He prohibited its public performance during his lifetime and specified in his will that it be published posthumously; Durand published it in Paris in April 1922.
After it was rejected in Paris because of the prejudice against portraying biblical characters on the stage, it was given in German at Weimar in 1877 on the recommendation of Liszt.
From 1861 to 1865 he was professor of piano at the Niedermeyer School, where his pupils included Gabriel Fauré and André Messager.