“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: Double bass, piano
Book
Item no.: 962590
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 878987
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 873772
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 871771
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 871164
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 923091
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 921064
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 921023
for: Men's Choir A Cappella
Score
Item no.: 877066
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 873312
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 878859
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 872466
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 864340
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 879864
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 866044
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 283783
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 890491
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 923154
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Score
Item no.: 891196
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 885525
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 877709
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 880970
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 922167
for: Flute, piano
Score
Item no.: 921295
(Urtext)
for: Symphonic orchestra
Double bass (orchestral part)
Item no.: 343552
(Urtext)
for: Symphonic orchestra
Violin 2 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 343550
(Urtext)
for: Symphonic orchestra
Single part (Piano solo)
Item no.: 246794
for: Violin, orchestra
Double bass (orchestral part)
Item no.: 690382
Bärenreiter Urtext
for: Chamber ensemble
Double bass (orchestral part)
Item no.: 1689625
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 1200831
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1092039
Symphonic poem
after a poem by Henri Cazalis
Bärenreiter Urtext
for: Violin, orchestra
Violin 2 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 692989
Motette
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 445748
Reprint
Repertoire Explorer
for: Piano, orchestra
2 Piano reductions
Item no.: 817484
for: Women's Choir [SSA] and Piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1092065
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 1202531
Bärenreiter Urtext
for: Symphonic orchestra
Violin 2 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 673898
for: Cello, orchestra
Item no.: 564718
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1009764
BOVACO Vocal Solo
for: Voice, concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1031239
for: Concert Band and Vocal Soloist
Score
Item no.: 1062457
for: Choir
CD
Item no.: 811177
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 883553
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 881729
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 922212
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 893029
for: Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 872898
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