The Carnival of the Animals
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The Carnival of the Animals (Le carnaval des animaux in the original French) is a musical suite of 14 movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns.
Le Carnaval was composed in February 1886 while Saint-Saëns was vacationing in a small Austrian village. It was originally scored for a chamber group of flute, clarinet, two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, but is usually performed today by a full orchestra, and with a glockenspiel substituting the rare glass harmonica. Saint-Saëns, apparently concerned that the piece was too frivolous and likely to harm his reputation as a serious composer, repressed performances of it and only allowed one movement, Le Cygne, to be published in his lifetime. Only small private performances were given for close friends like Franz Liszt. Saint-Saëns' will, however, included a provision which allowed the suite to be published after his death and it has since become one of his most popular works. It is a favorite of music teachers and young children, along with Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.
There are fourteen movements:
- Introduction et marche royale du Lion (Introduction and Royal March of the Lion)
- Poules et Coqs (Hens and Cocks)
- Hémiones (animaux véloces) (Wild Asses)
- Tortues (Tortoises)
- L'Éléphant (The Elephant)
- Kangourous (Kangaroos)
- Aquarium
- Personnages a longues oreilles (People with Long Ears)
- Le coucou au fond des bois (The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods)
- Volière (Aviary)
- Pianistes (Pianists)
- Fossiles (Fossils)
- Le Cygne (The Swan)
- Finale
As the title suggests, the work follows a zoological program and progresses from the first movement ("Introduction and Royal March of the Lion"), through portraits of elephants and donkeys ("People with Long Ears") to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs. Several of the movements are of humourous intent: "Pianists", for example, depicts piano students clumsily practicing scales, "Tortoises" includes a greatly slowed-down version of the famous Can-can from Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, and "L'Éléphant" is Hector Berlioz's "Dances des sylphes" much lower than usual as a double bass solo. "Fossils" quotes Saint-Saëns' own Danse macabre and various traditional French tunes.
The most famous movement is the penultimate one ("The Swan") which is a lyrical cello solo to the accompaniment of two pianos. The ballet The Dying Swan is choreographed to this music.
Ogden Nash wrote a set of humorous verses to accompany each movement, which are often recited when the work is performed. The conclusion of the verse for the "Fossils", for example, fits perfectly with the punchline-like first bar of the music:
- Last night in the museum hall
- The fossils gathered for a ball
- There were no drums or saxophones,
- But just the clatter of their bones,
- A rolling, rattling, carefree circus
- Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas.
- Pterodactyls and brontosauruses
- Sang ghostly prehistoric choruses.
- Amid the mastodonic wassail
- I caught the eye of one small fossil.
- Cheer up, sad world, he said, and winked-
- It's kind of fun to be extinct.
In 1999, Walt Disney Feature Animation incorporated the Finale into Fantasia 2000. In the film, a flock of flamingos is annoyed by another flamingo with a yo-yo. The music was recorded by James Levine conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.