Camille Saint-Saëns' Le cygne (1886), or The Swan, was
one of his most popular pieces of music during the span
of his life, although the general public was not aware
that it was actually just a part of a larger suite, at
the time. The Swan is actually the 13th movement of a
suite called The Carnival of the Animals (1886), or the
Grande Fantasie Zoologique, as Saint-Saëns referred to
it. It was intended to be a "fun" piece, to satisfy the
composer's mischievous wit. Saint-Saëns, throughout
his...(+)
Camille Saint-Saëns' Le cygne (1886), or The Swan, was
one of his most popular pieces of music during the span
of his life, although the general public was not aware
that it was actually just a part of a larger suite, at
the time. The Swan is actually the 13th movement of a
suite called The Carnival of the Animals (1886), or the
Grande Fantasie Zoologique, as Saint-Saëns referred to
it. It was intended to be a "fun" piece, to satisfy the
composer's mischievous wit. Saint-Saëns, throughout
his teaching and compositional career, enjoyed writing
or improvising parody pieces that made fun of a certain
composition or a musical style. At the École
Niedermeyer, where he taught some of France's brightest
young musicians, he would often escape from the boring
lessons by leading the students in parodies of this
type. Saint-Saëns did not allow for The Carnival of
the Animals to be published during his life, because he
feared that it would take precedence over his more
serious works. The work was eventually published,
though, after the composer's death, by order of his
last will and testament.
The Swan was written for the aging cellist
Charles-Joseph Lebouc, who was famous for his own
playing and for being the son-in-law of the well-known
singer Adolphe Nourrit. Saint-Saëns had promised a
solo piece for the cellist years previous, but he did
not get around to the project until February 1886. By
this time, Lebouc was the subject of ridicule in the
string-playing community due to a number of bad
performance habits that he had acquired in his old age.
Once he performed The Swan with its extreme mellowness,
he again caused his fellow cellists to take notice of
the tenderness in his playing.
The Swan was also used as the basis of a dance piece
that was choreographed by Michel Fokine. In 1905, the
ballet piece, which was retitled La Mort du Cygne, or
The Dying Swan, was performed for the first time by the
beloved dancer Anna Pavlova. The Dying Swan has
remained in the ballet repertoire, and has been
performed by countless ballerinas, including Madame
Napierkowska during a recital in 1921 that Saint-Saëns
witnessed himself just weeks prior to his death.
I created this this arrangement for Viola & Concert
(Pedal) Harp.
PARTITION