English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
a dramatized life by Shaun MacLoughlin
Part 2 1878 - 1921
Click on the youtubes to hear excerpts of the music
| (INTRODUCE MON COEUR S'OUVRE A TA VOIX FROM SAMSON AND DELILAH AND TAKE UNDER) | |||||||||
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| NARRATOR: |
This dark period in his life during the death of his sons produced some of his most popular works, including Danse macabre (1875) and his opera
Samson and Delilah (1878). (BRING UP MON COEUR S'OUVRE A TA VOIX FROM SAMSON AND DELILAH AND TAKE DOWN AGAIN) |
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SAINT-SAËNS:
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I gave a hearing of the second act at my house, but no one understood it at all. Without the aid of Liszt, who did not know a note of it, but who engaged me to finish it and put it on at Weimar, Samson would never have seen the light. | ||||||||
| NARRATOR: | Thus the opera's premiere was sung in German and met with resounding success. It did not receive its Paris premiere until 1890 and was performed at The Royal Opera House, London in 1893 after the Lord Chamberlain removed the ban on adapting opera from Bible stories. It was first mounted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1895. The New York Times was to write: | ||||||||
| NEW YORK TIMES: | Camille Saint-Saëns Is Enthusiastic Over America; Famous Composer Agreeably Surprised Here, Where Woman Reigns and Good Taste Prevails and the Fine Arts Flourish Everywhere. | ||||||||
| SAINT-SAËNS: |
The people seem to me much more tranquil than the agitated inhabitants of certain northern towns. I found them courteous, receptive. and sympathetic. But then why should not one be happy in a country where all the women are charming? (BRING UP MON COEUR S'OUVRE A TA VOIX FROM SAMSON AND DELILAH AND PLAY OUT) |
NARRATOR |
He also praised the English and their musical prowess. In his book Harmonie et Mélodie he wrote: | ||||||
| SAINT-SAËNS: | I wish those who believe the English
to be devoid of feeling for music could hear the Birmingham singers.
Accuracy, precision in time and rhythm, delicacy in light and shade,
charm in sonority. This wonderful choir combines everything. (INTRODUCE O BEAUX REVES FROM ETIENNE MARCEL AND TAKE UNDER) |
BROOK: SAINT-SAËNS:
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Her Majesty wanted to hear me play. I had the honour of accompanying the Princess Beatrice as she sang an aria from my opera, Etienne Marcel. Her Royal Highness sang with great clearness and distinctness, but it was the first time she had sung before her august mother, and she was frightened almost to death. The Queen was so delighted that some days later, without my being told of it, she summoned to Windsor Madame Gye, wife of the manager of Covent Garden - the famous singer Albani - to ask to have Etienne Marcel staged at her own theatre. (BRING UP O BEAUX REVES FROM ETIENNE MARCEL AND PLAY OUT) |
BROOK: |
The composer's interest in England inspired him to base his
next opera on Henry VIII. (INTRODUCE HENRY VIII, ACT III, THE SYNOD AND PLAY UNDER) | ||||
| NARRATOR: | Saint-Saëns most successful opera, after Samson et Dalila, centres on the period of Henry's life where his political ambitions and his defiance of Rome intertwine with his rejection of Catherine of Aragon and his marriage to Anne Boleyn. | ||||||||
BROOK:
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While he was at work on this opera he was elected a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, and at the same time was composing various other works, making concert tours, and leading a very full life. Rehearsals for Henry VIII began in the autumn of 1882, and by the time it was ready for the opening night, March 5th 1883, Saint-Saëns felt utterly exhausted and was obliged to take a complete rest, first at Algiers and then at Cauterets. He returned to Paris in the following October to find Henry VIII established in the repertoire of the Opera. (BRING UP HENRY VIII, ACT III, THE SYNOD AND PLAY OUT) |
NARRATOR:
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In 1886 he composed his magnificent Third
Symphony in C-minor for the Royal Philharmonic Society. (INTRODUCE THE THIRD (ORGAN) SYMPHONY AND TAKE UNDER) It was finished early in 1886, and the he came to London to direct its first performance. This great symphony, which uses an organ and four-hand piano as well as a full orchestra, was afterwards dedicated to the memory of his good friend Franz Liszt, who died in the same year. |
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| SAINT-SAËNS: | I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again. | ||||||||
| NARRATOR: | Paul Serotsky has written: | ||||||||
| PAUL SEROTSKY: |
(BRING UP THE THIRD (ORGAN) SYMPHONY AND TAKE OUT) | ||||||||
NARRATOR:
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It is believed that he had written his ever popular Carnival of the Animals
with its beautiful melody The Swan in an Austrian village as early as 1866. It was the only one of the animals -
supposedly based on characters that he knew - that he allowed to be published during his life-time.
(INTRODUCE THE SWAN AND PLAY UNDER) It is often called The Dying Swan after a poem by Tennyson.. It inspired the ballerina, Anna Pavlova to work with choreographer Michel Fokine to create the famous 1905 solo ballet dance. (WEAVE THE SWAN THROUGH TENNYSON'S POEM) | ||||||||
| READER: |
Wide, wild, and open to the air, Which had built up everywhere An under-roof of doleful gray. With an inner voice the river ran, Adown it floated a dying swan, And loudly did lament. (BRING UP THE SWAN AND TAKE DOWN AGAIN). And the creeping mosses and clambering weeds, And the willow-branches hoar and dank, And the wavy swell of the soughing reeds, And the wave-worn horns of the echoing bank, And the silvery marish-flowers that throng The desolate creeks and pools among, Were flooded over with eddying song. (BRING UP THE SWAN AND PLAY OUT) | ||||||||
| BROOK: |
The life of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), the famous Italian
sculptor, had always fascinated Saint-Saëns, so he decided to write an
opera on this subject. It was called Ascanio, for Berlioz had
already used the sculptor's name for the title of his opera. (INTRODUCE AIRS DE BALLET D'ASCANI0 AND THEN PLAY UNDER) | ||||||||
NARRATOR:
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The opera's French libretto, was based indirectly on the historical novel, Benvenuto Cellini,
by Alexandre Dumas, père.
Meanwhile, Cellini has asked the King to allow the wedding of Ascanio and Colombe as a reward for his latest artistic masterpiece. (BRING UP AIRS DE BALLET D'ASCANI0 AND THEN PLAY OUT) | ||||||||
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BROOK: NARRATOR: BROOK:
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His mother had died, driving the mourning composer away from France under the alias "Sannois". He had been enjoying a complete rest incognito. As soon as his identity was discovered admirers swarmed around him, and there was nothing to do but to retum to Paris. But this holiday stirred in him a great desire to travel, and in the ensuing years he was frequently journeying to foreign parts. In the winter of 1891, for instance, he went as far afield as Ceylon, and while he was there revised his opera Proserpine. (INTRODUCE AFRICA: A FANTASIA FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA AND THEN PLAY UNDER) Returning through Egypt he found Cairo to be a very pleasant place for a lengthy sojourn, and wrote a musical picture of it: Africa, a Fantasia for piano and orchestra. | ||||||||
| NARRATOR: |
Saint-Saëns collected much of the region's indigenous music, often transcribing themes on the spot.
In this manner he absorbed both the materials and techniques of North African music,
which he eventually employed in dozens of his own works.
Africa is one of the very first works to be recorded with its composer in the role of soloist;
a 1904 recording, with Saint-Saëns at the piano, still survives. (BRING UP AFRICA: A FANTASIA FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA AND THEN PLAY OUT) | ||||||||
| BROOK: |
During the nineties he was frequently in England. In June 1893
he went to Cambridge to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of
Music in the company of Tchaikovsky, who died later that year.
But one of his most pleasant recollections of the last decade of the nineteenth century was his second visit to Windsor Castle, where the great Queen received him. In his memoirs he writes: | ||||||||
| SAINT-SAËNS: |
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| BROOK: NARRATOR:
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Before we leave the Nineteenth Century, mention must be
made of the composer's visit to the Far East in 1895, when he toured
through parts of China, and of the Jubilee concert given in his honour
at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1896 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary
of his first public appearance. (INTRODUCE ACCOMPANYING MUSIC FROM DEJANIRE AND THEN WEAVE UNDER) Of special interest, too, is the music he wrote for Déjanire, a tragedy by Louis Gallet.
He persuaded Saint-Saëns to write the score for a performance of Louis Gallet's epic verse-drama Déjanire to inaugurate the project. At first Saint-Saëns was reluctant to have his music performed in what he called an "abominable temple of blood". However, Castelbon managed to convince him by inviting him to visit the arena where his arrival was greeted by hidden musicians playing in his honour. In August 1898 Déjanire opened in Béziers with two performances before 12,000 spectators each time. The reception was ecstatic with Saint-Saëns conducting a huge musical ensemble consisting of a choir of hundreds, massed military bands and an orchestra that included 18 harps and an array of 25 trumpets. Although fatally ill and suffering from deafness, Louis Gallet managed to attend the second performance. In his memoirs Saint-Saëns recalled: | ||||||||
| SAINT-SAËNS: |
He heard nothing, however - neither the artists, the choruses, nor even the applause of the several thousand spectators, who encored it enthusiastically. A little later he passed on, leaving in his friends' hearts a void which it is impossible to fill. (BRINGUP ACCOMPANYING MUSIC FROM DEJANIRE AND THEN TAKE OUT) | ||||||||
| NARRATOR: | At about this time the pianist and composer Frncesco Berger described Saint-Saëns as: | ||||||||
| BERGER: | A man of middle stature, square-set, with a finely chiselled nose, and a wonderful pair of alert, penetrating eyes. He has a remarkable speaking voice, loud and very shrill, and he utters so rapidly that it is difficult to follow him - his words flash from him like sparks from an anvil. | ||||||||
| BROOK: MACKENZIE: |
His encyclopaedic knowledge of many other subjects besides music
and his remarkable wit made him a wonderful conversationalist, The impression of some that he was "cold"
in the concert hall was derived erroneously from his very calm and
collected attitude on the platform. His literary works include poetry.
various books on music and musical matters generally. and even a few
plays.
He was in London again in ]une 1913 to be present at a Jubilee Festival at the Queen's Hall to mark his seventy-five years of music from the lirst piano lesson he received from Madame Masson before his third birthday. With the exception of a Mozart Concerto, the entire programme was devoted to his own works, including the fine C-minor Symphony.
Amid the varied developments of modern music, you have worthily upheld the highest traditions of your national art. You have been the champion of its cause and carried its classic banner from triumph to triumph. With 'progress' for your watchword and with unique versatility, you led the advance of French music in every branch, and you are justly acknowledged today to be its most gifted and exalted representative. | ||||||||
NARRATOR:
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In the same year Saint-Saëns completed an oratorio called The
Promised Land. This was sung at the Gloucester Musical Festival that
autumn in the composer's presence. Incidentally, he had just been
raised to the rank of Cornmandeur of the Legion of Honour. ( BRING UP THE SOUNDS OF WAR AND TAKE UNDER) The Great War did little to restrict his activity. (BRING UP SOUNDS OF WAR AGAIN. THEN MIX THROUGH TO HIS ELEGY FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO AND TAKE UNDER:) At this time he wrote an Elegy for violin and piano, and a Cavatina for tenor trombone and piano; and then in 1916 went as representative of France to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, writing a cantata, Hail California.
(ESTABLISH AND THEN TAKE UNDER: CYPRES ET LAURIERS) During 1920 he composed a second Elegie for violin and piano, Six Fugues for the piano, and an Odelette for flute and orchestra. He celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday in Paris by appearing as composer and executant at a concert held at the Trocadero. Saint-Saëns died of pneumonia in the arms of a faithful manservant, on 16 December 1921 at the Hôtel de l'Oasis in Algiers. He was eighty-six, but his vitality had remained astonishing. No composer has ever been laid to rest with greater pomp or solemnity. As a holder of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, he was entitled to full military honours and, throughout the night, while musicians from the Opera were roused from their sleep, troops were assembled into detachments to escort the body to the Cathedral. (BRING UP CYPRES ET LAURIERS AND PLAY OUT) ln the presence of the Governor-General, the Archbishop of Algiers conducted the service. (INTRODUCE THE SWAN AND WEAVE UNDER) The leading cellist paid tribute with a rendering of 'The Swan', the only published fragment of Carnival of the Animals. acknowledged today to be its most gifted and exalted representative. | ||||||||
| SAINT-SAËNS: | The supernatural lends itself admirably to expression in music and music ,finds in the supernatural a wealth of resources. But what music must have above all are emotions and passions laid bare and set in action by what we term the situation. And where can one find more or better situations than in history? | ||||||||
| NARRATOR: |
(BRING UP THE SWAN AND PLAY OUT) |
