Composer camille saint saens biography wikipedia

Camille Saint-Saens, born in Paris in 1835, lived into the 20th century, dying in 1921 in Algiers. He was a child prodigy displaying perfect pitch at age 2 and made his concert debut at age 5 accompanying a violinist on the piano performing a Beethoven violin sonata. His best known compositions are Carnival of the Animals and Danse Macbre, written assymphonic poems, a musical genre he is credited with inventing. Apparently, he composed Carnival…as a joke and then became concerned it would ruin his reputation.  The only movement he allowed to be performed was ‘The Swan’ which was interpreted by famed Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, thousands of times.  Three interesting footnotes to his successful musical career: 1.) Saint-Saens was conversant in botany, geology, butterflies, and math and published several papers on acoustics.  2.) He was the first famous composer to write a film score (“The Assassination of the Duke of Guise”, and 18 minute silent movie made in 1908)  3.) He was the earliest born pianist to make a recording of his work.

French composer, organist, conductor and pianist (1835–1921)

"Saint-Saëns" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint-Saëns (disambiguation).

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (,;French:[ʃaʁlkamijsɛ̃sɑ̃(s)]; 9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto (1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre (1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony (1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).

Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy; he made his concert debut at the age of ten. After studying at the Paris Conservatoire he followed a conventional career as a church organist, first at Saint-Merri, Paris and, from 1858, La Madeleine, the official church of the French Empire. After leaving the post twenty years later, he was a successful freelance pianist and composer, in demand in Europe and the Americas.

As a young man, Saint-Saëns was enthusiastic for the most modern music of the day, particularly that of Schumann, Liszt and Wagner, although his own compositions were generally within a conventional classical tradition. He was a scholar of musical history, and remained committed to the structures worked out by earlier French composers. This brought him into conflict in his later years with composers of the impressionist and expressionist schools of music; although there were neoclassical elements in his music, foreshadowing works by Stravinsky and Les Six, he was often regarded as a reactionary in the decades around the time of his death.

Saint-Saëns held only one teaching post, at the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris, and remained there for less than five years. It was nevertheless important in the development of Fr

Camille Saint-Saëns (born Paris 9 October 1835, died Algiers, 16 December 1921) was a Frenchcomposer, pianist and organist. He was one of the greatest composers of his day. He composed lots of music of different kinds. Among his best works are his Symphony no 3 (with organ) , Piano Concerto no 2, Violin Concerto no 3, Cello Concerto no 1, the operaSamson and Delilah and the Danse Macabre. His most popular work, however, is the Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saens hated being thought of as “the composer of the Carnival of the Animals". He said he had only written it for a bit of fun and he did not want anyone to perform it. Today it still remains one of the most popular pieces for children.

Life

Three months after Saint-Saens was born his father died. Saint-Saens was often ill with tuberculosis when he was very small and this carried on throughout his life. He was brought up by his mother and his aunt. this illness still didn't hold Saint-Saens back. at the age of two his aunt taught him the piano. When he was ten he played piano concertos by Beethoven and Mozart at a public concert, playing everything from memory. He was very good at school and was interested in lots of subjects including science and philosophy. In 1858 he published some duets for harmonium and piano and he used the money to buy a telescope.

He studied music at the Paris Conservatoire and was a brilliant student, although he did not win the Prix de Rome. He soon became known as a composer, pianist and organist and he made many friends, among them Gounod, Berlioz and Rossini. Liszt thought he was the greatest organist in the world. Like Liszt, Saint-Saëns was often very kind to other composers and helped them to become known by playing and conducting their music. He was the first person to conduct Liszt’s symphonic poems in France. He himself wrote symphonic poems such as Le Rouet d’Omphale (1871) and Danse Macabre (1874

‘I compose music’, said Camille Saint-Saëns, ‘as a tree produces apples.’ A child prodigy, virtuoso pianist and accomplished travel writer, the prolific French composer came to embody the spirit of Classicism in an era of high Romantic creativity. Yet the elegance and formality of his music never overwhelm the unstoppable verve and spontaneity that make it so irresistible. Saint-Saëns took pride in his family’s Normandy roots, but his father had moved to Paris before his birth and Camille was thoroughly Parisian in his upbringing and outlook. After his father died of tuberculosis, he was brought up by his mother and an aunt. They encouraged the signs of genius that saw him deliver written compositions before he was four and make a public appearance aged five, playing the piano part in a Beethoven violin sonata. By the age of ten, he was good enough to perform two concertos alongside several solo pieces in a legendary concert at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris. Study at the Conservatoire followed, then a solo career to go alongside his composing work. This was bolstered by organist posts at prestigious Paris churches where his awe-inspiring improvisation skills had the chance to flourish. For a while in the 1860s Saint-Saëns taught at the École Niedermeyer, an alternative to the Conservatoire that had more of an interest in early music, where the composers Gabriel Fauré and André Messager were among his students. He married in 1875, quickly fathering two sons. Both died in 1878, one by falling from a window. Saint-Saëns blamed his wife and left her three years later. Subsequently, he travelled widely and adventurously, frequently visiting Algeria. Throughout his life he was an intellectual omnivore, especially in the sciences, writing intelligently and engagingly on a wide range of subjects, and maintained a vigorous presence on the Paris musical scene. In 1871 he was the driving force behind the new Société Nationale de Musique, formed to promot