Interestingly, Saint-Saëns forbade the work to be published during his lifetime as he wanted to be considered a serious classical composer and felt that the Carnival of the Animals did not represent him properly. The Carnival of the Animals is the most famous work from French composer, Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). In Schubert’s music, he lightly touches on this cruel scene, slowing down a bit and then we carry on visualising again, fish happily swimming in the clear water.Ĭarnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns I always feel shocked about how cruel the lyrics are depicting the fish being killed by the fisherman. When the melody starts, we hear a happy fisherman in this natural scene. The piano part in the song starts with the light and flowing quick notes where we can hear fish swimming among the clear water. The Flight of Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov The magic here is after the sad maiden song the pure bird sound at the end is like the camera in a film changing focus from the people of the story to the nature surrounding them which echoes the human story, creating beautiful metaphors for an audience to ponder. Granados mainly uses quick and light single notes to paint the melodies of birdsongs. The creation of the bird sound being very different here from Messiaen’s Catalogue of the Birds. After her “song” ends, the last part of the piece is pure bird sound. Most of the music focuses on the maiden’s mournful song. Although the maiden has ignored all the advances the other man has made, her lover does not believe her, insists on fighting his supposed rival, and eventually dies. In the music, the maiden sings a mournful song to the nightingale as her lover has gone to fight another guy out of jealousy. The Maiden and the Nightingale is the fourth piece of the music in the piano solo suite, Goyescas composed by the Spanish composer Enrique Granados (1867-1916). The Maiden and the Nightingale by Enrique Granados Such technique and more are fully applied in the entire piece which gives the “storytelling” nature to the music. Then the quick and light notes sound as if the mouse quickly runs away. The sudden loud and dissonant chord shows how the mouse is suddenly scared by something. For example, the music starts with a slow single melody. Copland uses the pace, rhythm, dynamics, dissonance and consonance successfully which create the animation in the music. We can hear so vividly the different plots: sometimes the mouse is hidden away sometimes the cat gets flustered trying to catch the little mouse sometimes the mouse thinks the cat has already gone but the cat suddenly appears! All of these stories exist in the music we can hear them as if seeing what happens there (and in my mind, it is always Tom and Jerry as the characters in the music!).Īlthough The Cat and the Mouse is atonal music, the tune is easily accessible to all listeners. Messiaen uses the “colour of tones” at its most powerful, where different sounds interconnect and lay the birdsong amongt nature most beautifully.Īaron Copland’s (1900-1990) The Cat and the Mouse reminds me very much of the US cartoon Tom and Jerry. Each piece is written for a French province with a title of bird chosen for each region. The reason that the Catalogue of the Birds attracts me as “animal music” is that Messiaen not only depicts birdsong vividly but also creates a great landscape to go with the birds. Those birds include the alpine chough, Eurasian golden oriole, blue rock thrush, black-eared wheatear, tawny owl, woodlark, Eurasian wood warbler, greater short-toed lark, Cetti’s warbler, common rock thrush, common buzzard and black wheatear. The French composer Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992) transcribed 13 birdsongs to piano pieces which are collected in the Catalogue of the Birds ( Catalogue d'oiseaux ). From Schubert to Rimsky-Korsakov, pianist and artist An-Ting Chang reveals her favourite classical works inspired by, and celebrating, animals Catalogue of the Birds by Oliver Messiaen
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