This movement is just like listening to simple piano finger exercises, and on the original score, the editor even specified that the two performers “should imitate the hesitant style and awkwardness of a beginner”.
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This must have been more than a little tongue-in-cheek, as Saint-Saëns was a pianist himself. Saint-Saëns wasn’t satisfied with only poking fun at the animal kingdom and takes a jibe at pianists. With a melody that spans nearly the entire range of the instrument, the flute swoops and dives in relentless runs of demi-semi-quavers as two pianos join the chorus of the skies with intermittent chirrups and trills.ĮMMANUEL PAHUD | "Voliere" from Saint-Saëns "Le Carnaval des Animaux" Quietly buzzing tremolos on violins and viola set the scene for this movement, a flurry of airborne activity as the flute takes to the skies in a whirlwind of notes. Two pianos play steady, soft quaver chords, replicating the calm, vast expanse of the forest.Ī single offstage clarinet interjects occasionally with a two-note calling card, mimicking the cry of the cuckoo. Although the title is a little cryptic, many believe it to be a taunt at music critics, comparing them to braying donkeys.Ī duet between two violins, they alternate between high notes at the very top of the instrument’s range and sliding notes towards the bottom of the register, mimicking the animal’s signature “hee-haw”. Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals - AquariumĮnough with this serious music malarkey, thought Saint-Saëns, and after that brief but beautiful watery interlude, he returned to his musical jokes. There are more thinly veiled musical jokes here too, as Saint-Saëns quotes melodies from Felix Mendelssohn’s sprightly ‘Scherzo’ from A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as ‘Dance of the Sylphs’ from Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, both originally written for high-pitched instruments with light tones. Famously not known for being light on their toes, Saint-Saëns characterises the elephant in a juxtaposition of light piano notes and staccato melodies with the deep, weighty tones of the double bass. In a duet between the double bass and the piano, the Carnival’s elephant is cruelly taunted into dancing by a heavily satirical waltz. Saint-Saëns clearly felt as if he hadn’t ridiculed the animal kingdom enough, as his scornful gaze next fell on the poor elephant.
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Over pulsing piano chords, in a triplet rhythm, a string quartet plus double bass plays an agonisingly slow rendition of Jacques Offenbach’s Can-Can from his opera Orpheus in the Underworld.
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Saint-Saëns was really having a laugh when he wrote this one. Saint-Saens - Carnival of the Animals - FastAnimals/Wild Donkeys - Vieness Piano DuoĪh, to be a slow-moving tortoise lazing around in the afternoon sun.