Camille saint-saens biography summary of thomas

In all, he composed over works and was the first major composer to write music specifically for the cinema, for Henri Lavedan's film L'Assassinat du Henry I, Duke of Guise Duc de Guise. He withdrew the first, written for a Mozartian-scale orchestra, and the third, a competition piece. His symphonies are a significant contribution to the genre during a period when the French symphonic tradition was otherwise in decline.

Of the concertos, the Piano Concerto No. In he wrote his final symphony, the Symphony No. The confident Maestoso fourth movement perhaps reflects the confidence of Europe in its technology, its science, its "age of reason. In fact, since its posthumous publication, this work's imagination and musical brilliance have impressed both ordinary listeners and music critics.

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Camille saint-saens biography summary of thomas

Jump to: navigationsearch. It is a short work, its single bar movement lasting less than a quarter of an hour. It changes from a wistful and tense opening to a swaggering main theme, described as faintly sinister by the critic Gerald Larner, who goes on, "After a multi-stopped cadenza During the composer's lifetime his Henry VIII became a repertory piece; since his camille saint-saens biography summary of thomas only Samson et Dalila has been regularly staged, although according to Schonberg, Ascanio is considered by experts to be a much finer work.

There is a certain emotional dryness; invention is sometimes thin, but the workmanship is impeccable. From Meyerbeer he drew the effective use of the chorus in the action of a piece; [ ] for Henry VIII he included Tudor music he had researched in London; [ ] in La princesse jaune he used an oriental pentatonic scale; [ ] from Wagner he derived the use of leitmotifswhich, like Massenet, he used sparingly.

He was highly sensitive to word setting, and told the young composer Lili Boulanger that to write songs effectively musical talent was not enough: "you must study the French language in depth; it is indispensable. He is not known even to have contemplated writing one. Some of the earlier works were written to be played on either the harmonium or the organ, and a few were primarily intended for the former.

One of the first of his major works in the genre was the Piano Quintet It is a straightforward, confident piece, in a conventional structure with lively outer movements and a central movement containing two slow themes, one chorale-like and the other cantabile. It is a serious work, in which the main melodic material is sustained by the cello over a virtuoso piano accompaniment.

The woodwind sonatas are among the composer's last works and part of his efforts to expand the repertoire for instruments for which hardly any solo parts were written, as he confided to his friend Jean Chantavoine in a letter dated to 15 April "At the moment I am concentrating my last reserves on giving rarely considered instruments the chance to be heard.

For Gallois the Clarinet Sonata is the most important of the three: he calls it "a masterpiece full of impishness, elegance and discreet lyricism" amounting to "a summary of the rest". The same commentator calls the Bassoon Sonata "a model of transparency, vitality and lightness", containing humorous touches but also moments of peaceful contemplation.

Grove rates it as "his most brilliant comic work, parodying Offenbach, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Rossini, his own Danse macabre and several popular tunes". Also listed are an early Mass, collections of organ music, and choral songs. With the exception of Samson et Dalila the operas have been sparsely represented on disc. In its obituary notice, The Times commented:.

The death of M. He had maintained so vigorous a vitality and kept in such close touch with present-day activities that, though it had become customary to speak of him as the doyen of French composers, it was easy to forget the place he actually took in musical chronology. He held a position in his own country's music certain aspects of which may be fitly compared with each of those masters in their own spheres.

The critic Henry Colleswrote, a few days after the composer's death:. All his greatest contemporaries did. Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and even Franck, were ready to sacrifice everything for the end each wanted to reach, to drown in the attempt to get there if necessary. Rather, he defended the French tradition that threatened to be engulfed by Wagnerian influences and created the environment that nourished his successors".

Since the composer's death writers sympathetic to his music have expressed regret that he is known by the musical public for only a handful of his scores such as The Carnival of the Animalsthe Second Piano Concerto, the Third Violin Concerto, the Organ Symphony, Samson et DalilaDanse macabre and the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Among his large output, Nicholas singles out the Requiem, the Christmas Oratoriothe ballet Javottethe Piano Quartetthe Septet for trumpet, piano and strings, and the First Violin Sonata as neglected masterpieces.

I've played all his cello music and there isn't one bad piece. His works are rewarding in every way. And he's an endlessly fascinating figure. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. French composer, organist, conductor and pianist — Life [ edit ].

Early life [ edit ]. Early career [ edit ]. From Samson and Delilah. Sung by Enrico Caruso in Problems playing this file? See media help. Music [ edit ]. Orchestral works [ edit ]. Concertante works [ edit ]. Operas [ edit ]. Other vocal music [ edit ]. Solo keyboard [ edit ]. Chamber [ edit ]. Sabina Teller Ratner, [ ]. Sonata for bassoon with piano accompaniment Op.

Problems playing these files? Recordings [ edit ]. Honours and reputation [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes, references and sources [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Take me as I am. The clarinet, the cor anglais and the bassoon remain; their turn will come soon. References [ edit ]. Lexico UK English Dictionary. His opera Samson et Dalila, rejected in Paris because of the prejudice against portraying biblical characters on the stage, was given a premiere in German at Weimar inon the recommendation of Liszt.

Over the following years, he undertook extensive tours throughout Europe, the United States, South America, the Middle East, and East Asia, performing his five piano concerti and other keyboard works and conducting his symphonic compositions. As a pianist, he was admired by Richard Wagner for his brilliant technique and was the subject of a study by Marcel Proust.

From roughly until the end of his life, his immense production covered all fields of dramatic and instrumental music. His Symphony No. Among the best of his later works are the Piano Concerto No. 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. 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 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 GounodBerlioz and Rossini. Liszt thought he was the greatest organist in the world. The idea of music which describes a story was quite a new idea at that time.