“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: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 873728
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 364272
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 893125
for: Cello or 2 Celli and Piano
Score
Item no.: 870175
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 368391
for: Voice, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 882184
for: Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 921512
for: Piano 4 hands
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 643337
for: Choir
Choir score
Item no.: 881946
for: Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 887324
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 218556
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Score
Item no.: 429092
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 864039
for: Piano 4 hands
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 892912
for: Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 921646
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 888159
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 876539
for: Soprano Voice, Baritone Voice, Piano Accompaniment
Score
Item no.: 884395
for: Piano 4 hands
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 876894
for: Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 922753
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 874099
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 491555
for: Choir
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 921780
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 342881
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 1149722
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 459482
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 170792
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 420746
Band 2 - Frühwerk II
for: Organ
Item no.: 201997
for: Violin, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 210849
for: Violin, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 283798
for: Organ or Harmonium
Buch
Item no.: 283777
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 383379
for: 4 saxophones (SATBar)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 431070
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Score
Item no.: 685534
for: Flute, piano
Item no.: 182706
for: 2 Bassoons and Piano
Book
Item no.: 166499
for: Flötenquartett
Book
Item no.: 994491
for: 4 Bb Clarinets
Book
Item no.: 630412
for: Cello, piano
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 1618628
for: Violin, piano
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 193536
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 180813
for: Oboe, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246562
for: Bass recorder, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246548
for: Cello, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246520
for: Oboe, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1243602
for: Tenor saxophone (B-flat), piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1243596
for: Trumpet, orchestra
Sheet music
Item no.: 1266205
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