In the last year of his life, at the age of 85, Camille
Saint-Saëns was still active as a composer and
conductor, traveling between Algiers and Paris. Besides
a final piano album leaf, his last completed works were
three sonatas, one each for oboe, clarinet, and
bassoon. He sensed that he did not have much time left;
he wrote to a friend, "I am using my last energies to
add to the repertoire for these otherwise neglected
instruments." He intended to write sonatas for another
three wind instrume...(+)
In the last year of his life, at the age of 85, Camille
Saint-Saëns was still active as a composer and
conductor, traveling between Algiers and Paris. Besides
a final piano album leaf, his last completed works were
three sonatas, one each for oboe, clarinet, and
bassoon. He sensed that he did not have much time left;
he wrote to a friend, "I am using my last energies to
add to the repertoire for these otherwise neglected
instruments." He intended to write sonatas for another
three wind instruments, but was never able to.
Saint-Saëns began the pieces early in the year while
in Algeria and completed them in April in Paris. He was
not alone in wanting to write for these instruments.
English composers, such as Holst and Bax, and other
French composers, such as Honegger and Milhaud, were
also starting to expand the literature for woodwind
instruments around the same time. In fact,
Saint-Saëns' sonatas have pastoral and humorous
moments that are similar to those others' works,
relying on simpler melodies and textures than are found
even his earlier chamber works, yet retaining Classical
forms for their structure. Although all three sonatas
were published before Saint-Saëns' death, they were
not premiered until later. The Bassoon Sonata, Op. 168,
was dedicated to Saint-Saëns' friend, August Périer,
a bassoon professor at the Paris Conservatoire. The
opening Allegro moderato is liltingly charming as it
drifts between major and minor, building to a not too
dramatic climax in its development section. The second
movement, Allegro scherzando, begins in minor mode, but
it, too, changes frequently between major and minor
during its lighthearted jaunt. The final movement is in
two parts, Molto adagio and Allegro moderato. The
Adagio, the longest section of the entire sonata at
over five minutes, features a florid melody over a
simple, essentially chordal accompaniment. It leads to
the cadenza-like, minute-long final Allegro.
This Bassoon Sonata in G major, Op. 168 was composed in
1921, the year of his death and is the first of the
three sonatas that Saint-Saëns composed for wind
instruments, the other two being the Oboe Sonata (Op.
166) and the Clarinet Sonata (Op. 167), written the
same year. The piece is dedicated to Clément-Léon
Letellier (b. 1859) , lead bassoonist with the Societé
du Conservatoire de l'Opéra.
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