The musical zoo

Camille Saint-Saens; Carnaval des animaux; London Sinfonietta; Charles Dutoit, conducting

The French composers portray water in music better than anybody else. The subject matter of Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau” (Fountains) and “Ondine” from “Gaspard de la nuit” cannot be mistaken for anything but water. Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” presents an almost tangible picture of ripples in the water. And the spectacle inside the glass stage of an aquarium comes to life under the creative pen of Camille Saint-Saens in his famous “Carnival of the Animals.”

“Camille Saint-Saens was wracked with pains, when people addressed him, as Saint-Saens”.

On a very special Fourth of July concert with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops in 1989, Charles Kuralt read the Ogden Nash narration while the orchestra played “Carnival of the Animals”. During the music for almost each animal, a representative resident from the Cincinnati Zoo would lope across the stage; except the fish. Later in the program, Mr. Kuralt read the narration to Aaron Copeland’s “Lincoln Portrait”.

“I could not eat a kangaroo, But many fine Australians do, Those with cookbooks as well as boomerangs Prefer him in tasty kangaroomeringues."

M. Saint-Saens feared that “Carnival of the Animals” would harm his reputation as a serious composer. So, he never had it published. He had composed this musical menagerie while vacationing in Austria in 1886, scoring it for a fairly small chamber group, even though it includes two pianos (and two pianists). Only small private performances occurred for family and close friends. A provision in his will, however, allowed for publication of the suite after his death. Since then, various arrangers have expanded the score so that an entire orchestra can join in the fun.

“At midnight in the museum hall, The fossils gathered for a ball, Pterodactyls and brontosauruses Sang ghostly prehistoric choruses, Amid the mastodonic wassail I caught the eye of one small fossil, “Cheer up sad world,” he said and winked, “It’s kind of fun to be extinct.”

But I must say that the sparkling richness of the aquarium section haunts the musical hallways of my inner iPod. These days, a celeste makes the music shimmer and twinkle, but M. Saint-Saens originally called for the use of a glass harmonica. You can read about the glass harmonica here. A British music journalist claims that many years ago an orchestra made a recording of this movement featuring virtuoso harmonica player Tommy Reilly. Apparently, someone hired him by mistake instead of a player of the glass harmonica.

“Now we’ve reached the grand finale, On an animalie, carnivalie, In outdoing Barnum and Bailey, and Ringling, Saint-Saens has done a miraculous thingling.”

Credits: To Erich Kunzel, for bringing prominence, credibility and honor to the endeavors of pops orchestras, and for bringing musical wealth to the people in and around the city of Cincinnati. Rest in peace. And to my niece M. who on my birthday wanted to go to the zooooooooooo.