SKU: HL.51489939
UPC: 840126989403. 6.75x9.5x0.261 inches.
For flute (piccolo), clarinet (B flat/C), glass harmonica, xylophone, piano I, piano II, violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, double bass Written in March 1886 as a humorous occasional work for the traditional carnival concert organized by his cellist friend Charles-Joseph Lebouc, the Carnival of the Animals was so successful that Saint-Saëns banned performances and publication soon afterwards. He was worried that this “grand zoological fantasy” – consisting of 14 short individual pieces for eleven instruments – might overshadow his serious works. Yet only five months after the composer's death, it appeared in print after all, beginning its worldwide victory march – in its original setting as well as in numerous arrangements. Thus, the Carnival did in fact arguably become the most popular work by this French composer and, owing to its musical originality, it is also a favourite in music lessons or for school orchestra performances. With this combination of a study edition and an edition in parts (for which additional parts for larger numbers of strings may be ordered), G. Henle Publishers now presents the perfect resource for such occasions.
About Henle Urtext
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SKU: HL.51480939
UPC: 840126989779. 9.0x12.0x0.372 inches.
SKU: HL.49033265
ISBN 9790001136778.
With the title of this composition, Fever Fantasy, Jorg Widmann refers to its musical air: 'I often feel Robert Schumann's melodic shape to be like the amplitude of a temperature curve: nervous, flickering, feverish, an infinite number of small and large wave crests and troughs within the principal line.'The composer approaches this sound phenomenon with a setting for acoustic instruments. Nevertheless, he succeeds in conjuring up very unusual sound spectrums. Over long sections, the notation of this score mirrors the musical progressions, containing no concrete pitches but detailed performance instructions instead. Slowly, individual tones emergefrom ascending pizzicato lines, colourless sound surfaces, sounds of harmonics roughened by tremolos, and virtuoso clarinet scales, tones that do not reveal their origin until the work ends: C - F - E - D sharp, the beginning of Schumann's first violin sonata.
