“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: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 283781
for: Harp, orchestra
2 Scores
Item no.: 890124
for: Violin, orchestra
Score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 623437
for: Clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 335832
for: Tenor trombone, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 696326
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Item no.: 186748
Urtext Collection (Carisch)
for: Piano
Music lesson book
Item no.: 163401
for: Vocal and piano
Buch
Item no.: 1178012
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 175477
for: Solo voice (alto), mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 1615867
Lyric book
Item no.: 318306
for: Women's choir, organ [piano]
Score
Item no.: 161598
for: Oboe, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 773058
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 311180
for horn with piano accompaniment
for: Horn, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 1634295
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 796980
Shawnee Press
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1656818
for: Flute, piano
Book
Item no.: 1106957
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 318184
Great Zoological Fantasy
Breitkopf Urtext Edition
for: Chamber orchestra
Score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 131945
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 971695
(Urtext)
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 224812
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 101213
Music for Brass
for: Horn
Music score
Item no.: 971722
for: Accordion orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 634733
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1178011
Bärenreiter Urtext
for: Solo voice (alto), mixed choir (SATB), piano
Score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 1615866
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1197052
for: Flute, bassoon, piano
Piano score, parts
Item no.: 1192745
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1198578
for: Women's Choir and Organ
Choir score
Item no.: 998623
for: Horn and Organ
Book
Item no.: 998803
for: Cello and Guitar
Book
Item no.: 248054
for: Clarinet, concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 194145
for: Piano
Item no.: 363632
aus "Karneval der Tiere"
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 579232
for: 2 trumpets, organ
Item no.: 328438
from Samson and Delilah
for: Brass band
Sheet music
Item no.: 1298170
for: Piccolo, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246565
for: Oboe, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246561
for: Clarinet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246560
for: bass clarinet, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246557
for: Bassoon, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246556
Op. 33
for: Trumpet [cornet], piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1280785
Op. 33
for: Tuba (E-flat), piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1280778
from The Carnival of the Animals
for: Concert band
Sheet music
Item no.: 1288812
for: Horn (E-flat), piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1243594
for: Viola, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1243591