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CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS    1835 - 1921
a dramatized life by Shaun MacLoughlin

Part 1 1835 - 78

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Dance of Death from Kermaria Church, Plouha, Brittany

	(ESTABLISH THE DANSE MACABRE AND THEN DIP UNDER ANNOUNCEMENT)
NARRATOR: Danse Macabre	Camille Saint-Saëns We present The Life and Music of Camille Saint-Saëns by Shaun MacLoughlin (BRING UP DANSE MACABRE AGAIN. THEN WEAVE BEHIND:) He wrote in virtually all genres, including opera, symphonies, concertos, songs, sacred and secular choral music, solo piano, and chamber music and this famous symphonic poem, the Danse Macabre inspired by Henri Cazalis's gruesome poem, translated by Peter Low. (BRING UP DANSE MACABRE AGAIN. THEN WEAVE BEHIND:)
READER: NARRATOR: DONALD BROOK:	The Dance of Death Zigger-zigger-zig tapping on a coffin Death has got a beat and a toothy grin. At the stroke of twelve plays a crazy polka zigger-zigger-zag on his violin. It is described by Donald Brook, author of Five Great French Composers: In this weird graveyard waltz we hear the clattering of bones (produced by a xylophone) and all manner of spectral horrors mixed with a parody of the Dies Irae, until the crowing of a cock heralds the dawn, when the grisly assortment of skeletons and spooks subside to the vaults.
NARRATOR:	Saint-Saëns once said:
SAINT-SAËNS:	Compositions spring from my pen as easily as apples grow upon a tree.
NARRATOR:	The actor, Simon Callow has said of him:
CALLOW:	Simon Callow I love his music most of all for its extraordinary elegance and individual variety of wit. As he said himself, he wrote music "as an apple tree grows apples". His craft is elevated to a pitch of such strength and confidence that he's able to produce things of beauty to order. I like to think of Saint-Saëns as a wonderful chef. Nothing is ever too heavy; and always there's some fresh, original ingredient, some spice that he's found in the Orient or picked up on the Nile to create an excellent new culinary sensation. He's the Escoffier of music!
NARRATOR:	While his fellow composer Gounod described his extraordinary versatility:
GOUNOD:	He can write at will a work in the style of Rossini, Verdi, Schumann or of Wagner, but he is too good a musician to imitate any of the masters of whose works he possesses such an amazing knowledge. If we examine his music we find little that is not the original.
NARRATOR:	He was born in Paris on 9 October 1835. His father, a government clerk, died three months after his birth, and he was raised by his mother, Clemence, with the assistance of her aunt, Charlotte Masson. From the age of two Masson gave him piano lessons. At about this time Saint-Saëns was found to possess perfect pitch. Donald Brook has written:
BROOK:	Even before his third birthday he showed signs of an extraordinary sensitivity to music. Sounds of any sort aroused his interest : the striking of a clock always fascinated him; he would sit patiently listening to the "singing" of a kettle as it approached boiling point ; and even the creak of a slowly-closing door would arrest his attention.
NARRATOR:	His first composition at the age of three, a little piece for the piano, is now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. He learned to read and write by the age of three, and had some mastery of Latin by the age of seven
SAINT-SAËNS:	Saint-Saëns's mother Clemence In bygone days I was often told that I had two mothers - the mother who gave me life and my maternal great-aunt, Charlotte Masson. She was born in the provinces in 1781, but was adopted by a childless aunt and uncle, who made their home in Paris. He was a wealthy lawyer and they lived magnificently. My great-aunt was a precocious child. She walked at nine months, and she became a woman of keen intellect and brilliant attainments. As a frail, young girl, she undertook to earn her living by giving lessons on the pianoforte, in singing, painting, embroidery, in fact in everything she knew and in much that she did not. If she did not know, she learned then and there so that she could teach.
NARRATOR:	Although she was not a good piano teacher, she taught Saint-Saëns to keep his hands in the right position, and no doubt inspired him in many other ways. (BRING UP DANSE MACABRE FOR AS LONG AS FEELS RIGHT. THEN FADE)
SAINT-SAËNS:	Le Violin d'Ingres by Man Ray The painter jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was famous for his violin. I was introduced to him when I was five years old. He often talked to me about Mozart, Gluck, and all the other great masters of music. When I was six years old, I composed an Adagio which I dedicated to him in all seriousness. Fortunately this masterpiece has been lost. As I already played, and rather nicely for my years, some of Mozart's sonatas, Ingres in return for my dedication, presented me with a small medallion with the portrait of the author of Don Juan on one side, and this inscription on the other:
INGRES:	To Monsieur Saint-Saëns, the charming interpreter of the divine artist.
SAINT-SAËNS:	He carelessly omitted to add the date of this dedication, which would have increased its interest, for the idea of calling a knee-high youngster of six "Monsieur Saint-Saëns" was certainly unusual.
NARRATOR:	Meanwhile Saint-Saëns's first public concert appearance was when he was five when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata. He went on to begin in-depth study of the full score of Don Giovanni. In 1842, he began piano lessons with Camille-Marie Stamaty, who had his students play the piano while resting their forearms on a bar situated in front of the keyboard.
SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor	La Salle Pleyel, Paris This system is excellent for teaching the young pianist how to play pieces written for the harpsichord or the first pianofortes, where the keys responded to slight pressure. It develops firmness of the fingers and suppleness of the wrist, and, by easy stages, adds the weight of the whole arm. There is also a refinement of the quality of the sound made by the fingers alone.
NARRATOR:	Saint-Saëns remained a consummate pianist all his life. In 1868 at the age of 28 he composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor in only seventeen days. (INTRODUCE THE THIRD, PRESTO MOVEMENT FROM PIANO CONCERTO 2 AND PLAY UNDER)
SAINT-SAËNS:	When I was ten, my teacher decided that I was sufficiently prepared to give a concert in the Salle Pleyel, so I played there, accompanied by an Italian orchestra. I gave Beethoven's Concerto in C minor and one of Mozart's concertos in B flat.
NARRATOR:	As an encore, he offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. Word of this incredible concert spread across Europe, and as far as the United States with an article in a Boston newspaper.
SAINT-SAËNS:	Cornelia, who described her sons as jewels After my first concert, which was a brilliant success, my teacher wanted me to give others, but my mother did not wish me to have a career as an infant prodigy. At that time she made a remark which was worthy of Cornelia, the mother of the Emperor Tiberius. One day some one remonstrated with her for letting me play Beethoven's sonatas. "What music will he play when he is twenty?" she was asked. "He will play his own," was her reply. (BRING UP THE THIRD, PRESTO MOVEMENT FROM PIANO CONCERTO 2 AND PLAY OUT)
NARRATOR: Symphony No.1 in E flat major	Paris Conservatoire He studied composition under Fromental Halévy at the Conservatoire de Paris, and won many top prizes. He gained a reputation that resulted in his introduction to Franz Liszt, who would become one of his closest friends. At the age of sixteen, he wrote his first symphony; his second, published as Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, was performed in 1853 to the astonishment of many critics and fellow composers. (INTRODUCE SYMPHONY No. 1 in E-FLAT MAJOR AND PLAY UNDER) Hector Berlioz, who also became a good friend, famously remarked:
BERLIOZ:	He knows everything, but lacks inexperience.
SAINT-SAËNS:	Hector Berlioz I can still see myself at a rehearsal listening to a conversation between Berlioz and Gounod. Both of them were greatly interested in me, so that they spoke freely and discussed the excellences and faults of this anonymous symphony. They took the work seriously and it can be imagined how I drank in their words. When the veil of mystery was lifted, the interest of the two great musicians changed to friendship. I received a letter from Gounod, which I have kept carefully As it does credit to the author, I take the liberty of reproducing it here:
GOUNOD:	Charles Gounod My dear Camille: I was officially informed yesterday that you are the author of the symphony, which they played on Sunday. I suspected it; but now that I am sure, I want to tell you at once how pleased I was with it. You are beyond your years; always keep on - and remember that on December 11, 1853, you obligated yourself to become a great master. Your pleased and devoted friend, Charles Gounod (BRING UP SYMPHONY No. 1 in E-FLAT MAJOR AND TAKE IT UNDER AGAIN)
SAINT-SAËNS:	Église de la Madeleine I cannot let the old Conservatoire go without paying it a last farewell, for I loved it deeply as we all love the things of our youth. I loved its antiquity, the utter absence of any modern note, and its atmosphere of other days. I loved that absurd court with the wailing notes of sopranos and tenors, the rattling of pianos, the blasts of trumpets and trombones, the arpeggios of clarinets, all uniting to form that ultra-polyphone which some of our composers have tried to attain - but without success. Above all I loved the memories of my education in music which I obtained in that ridiculous and venerable palace, long since too small for the pupils who thronged there from all parts of the world. (BRING UP SYMPHONY No. 1 in E-FLAT MAJOR AND PLAY OUT)
NARRATOR:	In 1857, he gained the eminent position of organist at the Église de la Madeleine, which he kept until 1877. His weekly improvisations stunned the Parisian public and earned Liszt's 1866 observation:
LISZT:	Saint-Saens is the greatest organist in the world.
NARRATOR: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A Minor	Pablo de Sarasate: "For 37 years I've practiced 14 hours a day, and now they call me a genius" He also had an intimate knowledge of violin technique. This is evident in his 1863 Introduction and Rondo capriccioso in A Minor. (INTRODUCE AND THEN PLAY UNDER INTRODUCTION AND RONDO CAPRICCIO IN A MINOR) He dedicated this piece to the great Spanish violinist, Pablo de Sarasate. It has since become a standard performance piece for violinists. From 1861 to 1865, he held his only teaching position as professor of piano at the École Niedermeyer, where he raised eyebrows by including contemporary music - Liszt, Gounod, Schumann, Berlioz, and Wagner - along with the school's otherwise conservative curriculum of Bach and Mozart.
SAINT-SAËNS:	Victor Hugo Everything in my youth seemed calculated to keep me far removed from romanticism. Those about me talked only of the great classics. Who was it, I wonder, who had the happy idea of giving me, elegantly bound, the first volumes of Victor Hugo's poems? I have forgotten who it was, but I remember what joy the vibrations of his lyre gave me. Until that time poetry had seemed to me something cold, respectable and far-away. I found myself at once stirred to the depths, and, as my temperament is essentially musical in everything, I began to sing them. The older I grew the greater became my devotion to Hugo. I waited impatiently for each new work of the poet and I devoured it as soon as it appeared. (BRING UP INTRODUCTION AND RONDO CAPRICCIO IN A MINOR AND PLAY OUT)
NARRATOR:	Gabriel Fauré His most successful students at the Niedermeyer were André Messager and Gabriel Fauré, who was Saint-Saëns' favourite pupil and soon his closest friend. Saint-Saëns was a multi-faceted intellectual. From an early age, he studied geology, archaeology, botany, and lepidoptery. He was an expert at mathematics. Later, in addition to composing, performing, and writing musical criticism, he held discussions with Europe's finest scientists and wrote scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments. He wrote a philosophical work, Problèmes et mystères, which spoke of science and art replacing religion; Saint-Saëns's pessimistic and atheistic ideas foreshadowed Existentialism. Other literary achievements included Rimes Familières, a volume of poetry, and La Crampe des Écrivains, a successful farcical play. He was also a member of the Astronomical Society of France; he gave lectures on mirages, had a telescope made to his own specifications, and even planned concerts to correspond to astronomical events such as solar eclipses.
SAINT-SAËNS:	A painting on an Ancient Greek vase depicts a music lesson (c. 510 BC) What is Art? Art is a mystery - something which responds to a special sense, peculiar to the human race. Music ought to be included. Very few people understand music. For most it is, as Victor Hugo said, an exhalation of art - something for the ear as perfume is for the olfactory sense, a source of vague sensations, necessarily unformed as all sensations are. But musical art is something entirely different. It has line, modelling, colour through instrumentation, all making up an ideal sphere where some, like the writer of these lines, live from childhood on, which others attain through education, while many others never know it at all. (INTRODUCE THE MARCHE HÉROIQUE AND THEN WEAVE UNDER)
NARRATOR: BROOK: Marche Héroique	The Franco Prussian War In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War, despite being over in barely six months, left an indelible mark on the composer. Throughout the siege of Paris the he served in the National Guard, and during a lull in the fighting wrote the familiar Marche Héroique, which he dedicated to the memory of his friend Henri Regnault, the painter, who was killed in a battle on the outskirts of the City. After this civil war broke out in Paris. The evacuation of the German troops from the capital led to the (second) Commune of Paris, who ruled the city ruthlessly in the spring of 1871 until they were suppressed by the troops of the National Guard Assembly of France.
NARRATOR:	He was relieved from fighting duty as one of the favourites of a relative of emperor Napoleon III, but fled nonetheless to London for several months when the Paris Commune broke out in the besieged Paris of winter 1871, his fame and societal status posing a threat to his survival.
SAINT-SAËNS:	There has been a great deal of discussion of the causes which brought on the war of 1870. Will anyone ever know what was hidden in the minds of the sovereigns, the ministers, and the ambassadors? There is one thing the most discerning historian can never reach - the depths of the human soul. (BRING UP THE MARCHE HÉROIQUE AND PLAY OUT)
BROOK:	In London, he found Gounod and various other fellow-countrymen. His début in this country was made at a concert held by the Musical Union, and the cordial welcome he received was no doubt responsible for his many return visits. He also gave several recitals on the Albert Hall organ.
NARRATOR:	Saint-Saëns by himself In the same year, he co-founded with Romain Bussine the Société Nationale de Musique in order to promote a new and specifically French music. After the fall of the Paris Commune, the Society premiered works by members such as Fauré, César Franck, Édouard Lalo, and Saint-Saëns himself, who served as the society's co-president. In this way, Saint-Saëns became a powerful figure in shaping the future of French music. By now he was famous in Paris for his short stature, his odd walk due to his falling through a stage trap door in London , and his lisp, all of which were caricatured in the press. In 1875 he made a concert tour to Moscow, where he struck up an immediate rapport with Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky's brother, Modest, described their encounter:
MODEST TCHAIKOVSKY:	Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Not only had they both been enthusiastic about ballet in their youth, but they were also able to pull off splendid imitations of ballerinas. They brought out a little ballet on the stage of the Conservatoire. Saint-Saëns, aged 40 played the part of Galatea, most conscientiously, while Tchaikovsky, aged thirty five, appeared as Pygmalion, Nikolay Rubinstein performed the orchestra. Unfortunately, besides the three performers, there were no spectators to witness this singular performance.
NARRATOR: Requiem: Agnus Dei	The same year, nearing forty, although like his friend Tchaikovsky, he was a homosexual, he married Marie Laure Emile Truffot. She was was just 19. He was too busy for a honeymoon, but they had two sons. They both died in 1878, within six weeks of each other, one from malaria, the other upon falling out of a fourth-story window. (INTRODUCE THE VOCAL OF THE AGNUS DEI FROM THE REQUIEM AND PLAY UNDER) Ironically at this time he had just completed his Requiem with its immensely sad Agnus Dei. Saint-Saëns blamed his wife for both deaths, and when they went on holiday together in 1881, he simply disappeared one day. A separation order was enacted. They never divorced nor met again, though she turned up, heavily veiled, at his state funeral. She died at the age of 95 in 1950. Ironically this dark period in his life was to produce some of Saint-Saëns' most popular works (BRING UP THE AGNUS DEI AND PLAY OUT)

Saint-Saëns Part 2 1878 - 1921

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