“I like good company, but I like hard work still better.” Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Saint-Saëns was an inexhaustible French pianist, organist and composer, responsible for the infamous The Carnival of Animals. Browse our sheet music and scores, and have a carnival with Camille today!
Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris on October the 9th, 1835, and since his father died a few months later, he was raised by his mother and his great-aunt, who was a pianist. Camille’s musical talents were clear from an early age, he took his first piano lessons with his great aunt, and he fell in love with the organ at the very first note. With composition, he also started young, and was only 15 years old when he completed his first symphony (Symphony in A major), which is now very rarely performed.
After completing his studies in piano, organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire, he first worked as an organist, but he gave up his position in 1877, to pursue his love of composition.
As he became increasingly famous, he took more trips within Europe, and to America, as well as to Africa, and it was on this final trip that he died on December 16, 1921 in Algiers, at the age of 86.
Only a few pieces from Camille Saint-Saëns’ great work have made it into the modern concert and stage repertoire. About half of his work is made up of virtually forgotten vocal pieces, such as cantatas, songs with piano, and choral works. However, The Christmas Oratorio and his opera Samson and Dalilah are extremely popular today.
Among his instrumental works, the Piano Concertos by Saint-Saëns and the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto are regularly featured in the modern concert repertoire. The Saint-Saëns Piano Works and the Organ Works by Saint-Saëns, which cover all difficulty levels, are often used by musicians as part of their professional training and development. A work of note is the Symphony No.3 by Saint-Saëns. In this ’organ symphony’, the composer uses the ’queen of instruments’ to create a special timbre within the orchestra.
One of the most famous works by Camille Saint-Saëns is the The Carnival of Animals, with which he enjoyed great success, just a few years before his death.
At first, Saint-Saëns’ musical ideas were regarded as ’revolutionary’, and were initially very successful abroad, before gaining popularity at home. It was not, however, until the late 1880s, that he was considered an established force within the classic music world. At the turn of the century, a new musical avant-garde arrived, with Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky, and Saint-Saëns was increasingly over-looked, and his fame dwindled, as his music was now widely considered ’old-fashioned’.
Throughout his life, Saint-Saëns was an advocate for French traditional and national music, and along with César Franck, he was co-founder of the ’Société Nationale de Musique’, which offered young French composers a pathway into the music world. He also spend his life fighting against the German influence on French music, especially that of Richard Wagner and Arnold Schönberg.
for: Guitar [lute]
Music score
Item no.: 884380
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 883956
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 865872
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 865455
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 863795
for: Voice (baritone), piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 877299
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 873707
for: Horn [or Cello] and Piano
Score
Item no.: 101214
for: Flute, piano
Score
Item no.: 891780
for: Vocal and Piano Reduction
Score
Item no.: 890628
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 893420
for: 2 Soprano, 2 Contralto, Horn and Organ
Score
Item no.: 922420
for: Piano 4 hands
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 921894
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 921789
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 888875
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 218562
for: Flute, Clarinet, Piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 210919
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 176049
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 174004
for: Cello and Chamber Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 871704
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 871624
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 871028
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 883577
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 346621
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 345992
for: Vocal and Organ
Score
Item no.: 336871
for: Voice, violin, piano
Piano score, parts
Item no.: 300373
for: Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 300317
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 283794
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 283782
for: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 283761
for: Piano, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 283748
Book
Item no.: 665106
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 923133
for: 2 Soprano, 2 Contralto and Organ
Score
Item no.: 923020
for: 2 Soprane (Sopran/Alt) und Orgel
Item no.: 477714
for Violoncello and Piano
for: Cello, piano
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 685770
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 316426
for: Chamber ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 339023
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 300386
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 247999
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 218558
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 297221
The Swan / Le cygne
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 579231
for: Cello, piano
Item no.: 383385
with marked and unmarked string parts
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 554864
ür Orchester
Studienpartitur
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1344074
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