Saint-Saëns Listener’s GuideCamille Saint-Saëns & His Organ SymphonyConcert Three: Friday, February 7, 2014Program: Algerian Suite: French Military March | Symphony No. 3

“Camille San-Sonz was wracked with pains/When people addressed him as Saint-Sains.”

So begins Ogden Nash’s Carnival of the Animals, 14 silly poems written to accompany the 14 silly pieces in Saint-Saëns’ delightful suite of the same name.

I’m sure Nash is right. The French love to correct bad pronunciations, and this composer’s name is probably the most badly pronounced of all. (“San-Sonz” is about as close as English speakers can get. It’s not correct, but

it’s in the ballpark!)

An underappreciated composer with an unpronounceable name. Sounds perfect for Classical Connections! At our concert you’ll learn to say his name so well that you could fool the Academie Française. You’ll find out that he’s a composer worthy of far more respect and appreciation than he gets. You’ll hear one of the best, most rousing marches of all time. Then you’ll explore the marvels of a revolutionary symphony by a conservative composer.

And, before the evening is over, I promise to recite the French tongue-twister I thought up myself when I was a student in Paris. It’s a doozy, about a reunion of the first 500 tenors who sang the male title role in Saint-Saëns’ most famous opera and

what happens when they drink too much and go wild.

If THAT doesn’t whet your appetite for this program, I give up!

N E A L G I T T L E M A N A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R & C O N D U C T O R

DAY T O N P H I L H A R M O N I C

The Classical Connections repertoire

history features lots of great composers.

All the big names: Bach, Haydn,

Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms,

Mahler, Strauss, Debussy, Stravinsky,

Shostakovich. Certified geniuses,

one and all.

What the heck is Camille Saint-Saëns

doing in the hallowed halls of the CC

pantheon?

He’s a good composer. Carnival of

the Animals is a nice, silly romp. He

wrote some nice concertos and Samson

and Delilah and (of course) the Organ

Symphony. But he’s no Bach, no

Beethoven, no Mozart.

Or is he?

Maybe not.

But I do think Saint-Saëns—and his

Organ Symphony—is certainly CC-worthy.

He’s a composer who used to be loved and

respected by classical audiences. But he’s

fallen out of fashion. There’s no hook for

the Saint-Saëns story. No 20-plus kids like

Bach. No suspicious death like Mozart or

Tchaikovsky. No deafness like Beethoven.

Nothing unfinished like Schubert. No

crazy imagination like Berlioz. No riots

like Stravinsky. No political subtext like

Shostakovich.

But Saint-Saëns was something special:

a child prodigy. He had perfect pitch at age

two and immediately began music studies.

He was three when he learned to read and

write. He entered the Paris Conservatory at

12 and graduated with First Prizes in Organ

and Composition three years later. He

studied mathematics, botany, archeology,

and poetry. He was a respected member

of the French Astronomical Society and

made observations of the moon’s surface

with a self-designed telescope. He had

a sharp sense of humor and a flair for

wordplay.

Maybe Saint-Saëns wasn’t a great

master of Western music. Maybe he was

just a really smart guy who wrote really

good music. Maybe that should be enough!

In composing, Saint-Saëns was, above

all, a craftsman. Writing music came

easily to him. His first piece dates from age

three, and he composed nearly every day

for the rest of his life. As I write this, I’m

listening to his Second Symphony, written

25 years before the Organ Symphony. I can

P R O G R A M

S E R I E S S P O N S O R Dr. Charles & Patricia Demirjian

S E R I E S M E D I A S P O N S O R Dayton City Paper

O F F I C I A L A U T O M O B I L E D E A L E R S H I P Bob Ross Auto Group

O F F I C I A L H O T E L Dayton Marriott

O F F I C I A L D A T A P R O V I D E R DataYard

C L A S S I C A L M E D I A PA R T N E R Discover Classical 88.1 & 89.9 FM

Broadcast on WDPR 88.1, July 5, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.Classical Connections Listener's Guide

© Neal Gittleman, 2014

DEMIRJIAN CLASSICAL CONNECTIONS

Friday, February 7, 2014, 8:00 p.m., Schuster Center

Q&A after the concert

Neal Gittleman conductor, presenter

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)

Algerian Suite: French Military March

Symphony No. 3 (“Organ Symphony”)

1. Allegro moderato—Poco adagio

2. Allegro moderato—Maestoso

Joshua Nemith, organ

Camille Saint-Saëns & Organ Symphony

The Genius of Craft/ The Craft of Genius

B Y N E A L G I T T L E M A N

S A I N T-S A Ë N S

André Calmettes. The movie tells a tale of

16th-century French religious and political

intrigue, culminating with the murder

of Duke Henri de Guise on the orders of

King Henri III. Saint-Saëns was the first

renowned composer to compose for film,

and this was his first (and only) movie

soundtrack. He saw just one screening

of the film, during which he jotted down

notes about what was happening on the

screen. Then he went home and composed.

He had limited resources available: piano,

harmonium, and string quintet. And no

models to follow. But Saint-Saëns created

a brilliant, compelling score. It perfectly

supports and illuminates the changing

moods of the film. It looks ahead to movie

soundtracks by Prokofiev, Korngold,

Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, John

Williams, and Howard Shore. Check it

out on YouTube!

Exhibit 3: The Organ Symphony. That’s

our concert. Then the defense will rest.

tell immediately that it’s expertly

done. It has pleasant melodies,

skillful counterpoint, and crystalline

orchestration. It’s a very good symphony.

But not a masterpiece.

That’s the “Saint-Saëns Problem”

in a nutshell. We live in a masterpiece-

obsessed time. Why play a good piece

by a good composer when there are so

many great pieces by great composers?

Beethoven is forgiven the many awkward

things in his symphonies because

they’re such inspired works. A brilliantly

constructed piece like Saint-Saëns’ Second

Symphony is ignored because it’s deft

but uninspired.

We worship genius. We’re suspicious

of craft.

I think Classical Connections programs

have two purposes: to reveal the mysteries

of great masterworks and to make the case

for new, forgotten, or underappreciated

composers. Saint-Saëns and his Organ

Symphony are a two-fer. He’s an under-

appreciated composer, and his Third

Symphony is a masterpiece.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is

my pleasure to rise in defense of Camille

Saint-Saëns!

Exhibit 1: “Fossils” from Carnival of

the Animals. Saint-Saëns wrote Carnival of

the Animals in 1886, the same year as the

Organ Symphony. It was a private piece,

written for Saint-Saëns’ own enjoyment,

and was never played in public in his

lifetime (although he probably shared

it with his closest friends). The “Fossils”

movement is an 80-second-long spoof

of beloved—but hackneyed—pieces:

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “Au Clair

de la Lune”, the Napoleonic anthem “Going

to Syria”, and Rossini’s aria “Una voce

poco fa” from The Barber of Seville. Musical

fossils one and all! Flying above them is a

self-parody: the tune of Saint-Saëns’ own

Danse macabre, played in the fossil-evoking

rattling-bones sonority of the xylophone.

It’s brilliant. It’s funny. It’s not Beethoven’s

Ninth. It’s Saint-Saëns.

Exhibit 2: The Assassination of the

Duke of Guise. Saint-Saëns composed this

15-minute score in 1908 for the silent film

of the same name by Charles Le Bargy and

A S S A S S I N A T I O N O F T H E D U K E O F G U I S E F I L M S T I L L

A S S A S S I N A T I O N O F T H E D U K E O F G U I S E M U S I C

The King of Instruments

Ever since Switched-On Bach in the 1970s and the rise of electronic keyboards in the 1980s, we’ve been hip to synthesizers —instruments that can change their sound at the push of a button.

Big deal! Johann Sebastian Bach had all that in the mid-18th century, thanks to the original

synthesizer: the pipe organ.

The organ that Bach played in Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church could imitate the sounds of recorder, flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, and viola da gamba. Not at the push of a button, but at the pull of a lever. This ability to

imitate other instruments, and to create new sounds by combining sonorities, inspired the organ’s nickname: The King of Instruments.

The Schuster Center doesn’t have a pipe organ. When we play a piece that needs one, we rent an electronic instrument. For Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, DPO Principal Keyboard Joshua Nemith will play an Allen Renaissance R-270 organ whose sound comes not from pipes, but from speakers. It’s really a synthesizer—a synthesizer specifically designed to recreate the sounds of a massive pipe organ.

What’s the Allen got that Bach’s organ didn’t? Multiple string sounds, clarinet, English horn, French horn, trombone, chimes, celesta, and a variety of complex composite stops called mixtures. It even has special sounds (cornet, waldhorn, and French trumpet) that are particularly characteristic of 19th- and early 20th-century French organs. That makes it the perfect instrument for the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony!

Camille Saint-Saëns was an organ virtuoso. He knew how to create interesting combinations of sounds ranging from the most gentle hushed pianissimos to the brightest blazing fortissimos. But the title instrument of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony is a bashful roi des instruments. It’s silent for the first half of each movement.

The rest of the time Saint-Saëns turns things around. While the organ is silent, he skillfully uses the instruments of the orchestra to imitate the sound of the organ. So this is an organ symphony in two senses. It’s a symphony with a prominent part for organ. And it’s a symphony where the organ’s sound is everywhere.

Even when the organist is counting rests!

1835October 9, born in Paris to Victor Saint-

Saëns, a government clerk, and Françoise-Clémence Collin, a carpenter’s daughter.

1837Begins piano lessons. (Yes, at age two!)

1839First composition, a solo piano piece.

1846Enters the Paris Conservatory organ

class of François Benoist. Public debut as solo pianist.

1853Appointment as church organist at Church

of Saint-Merri in Paris.

1857Moves from Saint-Merri to the Church of the Madeleine, where he remains as

organist until 1877.

1866Composes Danse macabre,

a Halloween concert staple.

1873Visits Algeria, which becomes his favorite

home-away-from-home.

1880Composes Algerian Suite.

1886Writes his two most famous pieces:

Symphony No. 3 and Carnival of the Animals.

1908First major composer to write

a film soundtrack: The Assassination of the Duke of Guise.

1915Represents France at

San Francisco World Expo.

1921December 16, dies in Algiers of pneumonia.

1835Hans Christian Anderson publishes first

stories for children. Halley’s Comet returns. P.T. Barnum begins his circus career.

1837Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce.

1842Poe: Masque of the Red Death.

1846Iowa statehood. Brigham Young

leads Mormons to Utah. Smithsonian Institution opens.

1853Crimean War begins. Steinway

Piano Company founded in New York. Verdi: Il Trovatore.

1857James Buchanan inaugurated as 15th U.S.

President. First issue of the Atlantic Monthly.

1866Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.

Degas: first ballet paintings.

1873Tolstoy: Anna Karenina. Lawn tennis.

First Impressionist Exhibition.

1880Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov.

1886American Federation of Labor.

Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

1908William Howard Taft elected 27th U.S. President. Model T.

Birth of Ian Fleming.

1915Sinking of the Lusitania.

Birth of a Nation.

1921First radio play-by-play of a baseball game.

A Saint-Saëns Timeline

ALLEN ORGAN