![fossils song from carnival of the animals fossils song from carnival of the animals](https://musescore.com/static/musescore/scoredata/g/2e70f9f23e6507a5312c8f2fe891c7ee1abf9090/score_0.png)
There are bits of other tunes as well: "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" (known in the English-speaking world as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), the French nursery rhymes "Au Clair de la Lune" and "J'ai du bon tabac", the popular anthem Partant pour la Syrie as well as the aria Una Voce Poco Fa from Rossini's Barber of Seville. Saint-Saëns is making a joke about himself, because he uses a tune from one of his own works: the Danse Macabre. The xylophone plays a fast tune which sounds like skeletons playing. Because of this, in some performances, the pianists become out of time with each other on purpose. When this movement was first published, a note was included that said that "Performers should imitate the playing of beginners, and their awkwardness". Saint-Saëns makes them seem rather stupid as they practise their scales. This is another joke, because “pianists” are people who play the piano, they are not animals. It sounds like birds flying in an aviary (bird cage). The flute has a very delicate, fast tune accompanied by strings and pianos. In the original sheet music, it is said that the clarinet player should move off stage, to make it sound more like the cuckoo is calling from a distance. Now and again the clarinet plays two notes which sound like the call of the cuckoo. The pianos play gentle chords, like someone walking quietly through a forest. IX: The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods.Some people think that Saint-Saëns is making a joke about music critics, who bray like donkeys. It is a very short piece, and it is played on two violins which imitate the “hee-haw” sound of the donkey. The “Persons with Long Ears” are actually donkeys. This is very graceful music with the tune played on the flute, accompanied by strings, with occasional glissandi (slides) on the glass harmonica. The two pianos hop about gracefully like kangaroos. These two pieces are meant to be played on higher sounding instruments, like the flute and violin, but in this piece, the tune is played on the double bass, the lowest sounding instrument in the orchestra/ This is also a musical joke - the tune is taken from Felix Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hector Berlioz's Dance of the Sylphs. In the middle section the elephant tries to dance a waltz. This double bass solo with piano accompaniment makes the elephant sound heavy and clumsy. Saint-Saëns makes a musical joke here: the tune is the same tune as the famous 'Can-Can' from Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, but played very slowly.
![fossils song from carnival of the animals fossils song from carnival of the animals](https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/6891a131-6559-4bfe-8a8c-e04d9c361cc0/1200/1200/False/fossils-carnival-of-the-animals-beginner-piano-sheet-music-tadpole-edition-1.jpg)
This movement for strings and piano is very slow, like a tortoise. The two pianos seem to go wild with scales rushing up and down madly. This music sounds like hens clucking (the strings) and a cock crowing (the clarinet).
#FOSSILS SONG FROM CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS FULL#
Today it is often performed with a full orchestra of strings, and with a glockenspiel instead of a glass harmonica, which is an unusual instrument. Saint-Saëns arranged it for an orchestra consisting of flute doubling piccolo, clarinet (B flat and C), two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass. There are 14 short movements, with a short introduction. It is scored for two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, Bass clarinet, saxophone, snare drumflute (and piccolo), clarinet (C and B♭), glass harmonica, and xylophone. The rest of the work was not performed until a year after Saint-Saëns’ death.įollowing a disastrous concert tour of Germany in 1893, Saint-Saëns withdrew to a small Austrian village, where he composed The Carnival of the Animals in February 1894. Just one movement was published during his lifetime: the famous Swan movement for solo cello. He wanted to be thought of as a serious composer. Saint-Saëns did not want the general public to hear it, because he did not want to be thought of as someone who wrote jokey pieces. Carnival was performed at a small gathering of friends. Saint-Saëns wrote the Carnival of the Animals as a distraction while composing his Symphony No.