The Swan (Saint-Saëns): A Song History

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Camille Saint-Saëns wrote Le carnaval des animaux, which he called a "Grande Fantaisie zoologique," in February 1886 while resting in Austria after a concert tour.[1][2] It was first heard privately in Paris on 9 March 1886, Mardi Gras, at the Shrovetide concert held each year by the cellist Charles-Joseph Lebouc, with Saint-Saëns and Louis Diémer playing the two piano parts.[1][2] Le cygne (The Swan), thirteenth of the suite's fourteen movements, is an expressive, songlike melody in G major, and Saint-Saëns dedicated it to Lebouc.[1][2][3]

Color woodcut of a white swan and three brown cygnets swimming on rippled water

William Giles, Swans and Cygnets, color woodcut, 1911. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to Saint-Saëns's piece.

After a few performances the composer withheld the suite from circulation and would not let it be printed.[1][2] The Swan was the single exception, issued on its own in 1887 in a version for cello and piano.[1][3] Henle, which publishes the cello piece today, says Lebouc adapted it for cello and a single piano with the composer's permission.[4] The complete suite reached the public only after Saint-Saëns's death: the Concerts Colonne in Paris played it in late February 1922 (Henle gives 25 February, IMSLP 26 February), and Durand published it in March, as his will allowed.[1][3]

Saint-Saëns also allowed the piece to be used for The Dying Swan (La mort du cygne), a short solo that Michel Fokine choreographed for Anna Pavlova.[1][2][5] Henle and Bru Zane date the solo to 1905, while Britannica gives both 1905 and 1907, so sources differ slightly on the year.[1][2][5] The Swan has since been arranged for many combinations of instruments and remains a popular cello piece.[1][4] Dana Gruber includes it in Classical Melodies For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer, a book of thirteen classical melodies for chromatic mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]

Our book that contains the song "The Swan (Saint-Saëns)"

Sources

  1. G. Henle Verlag: "Saint-Saëns, Carnaval des animaux, HN 939, Preface (Ernst-Günter Heinemann)".
  2. Bru Zane Mediabase: "Le Carnaval des animaux".
  3. IMSLP: "Le carnaval des animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille)".
  4. G. Henle Verlag: "Saint-Saëns, The Swan from The Carnival of the Animals, HN 943".
  5. Britannica: "The Dying Swan".
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Dana Gruber, Classical Melodies For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer".
  7. Image: William Giles, Swans and Cygnets, color woodcut, 1911. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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