“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: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 247999
for: Chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 647459
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 300386
with marked and unmarked string parts
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 554864
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 648260
for: Piano 4 hands
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 921894
for: Cello and Chamber Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 871704
for: Voice, violin, piano
Piano score, parts
Item no.: 300373
for: 2 Soprano, 2 Contralto, Horn and Organ
Score
Item no.: 922420
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 659028
ür Orchester
Studienpartitur
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1344074
for: 3 saxophones
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1072469
Reprint
Repertoire Explorer
Study Score 113
for: Cello, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 171184
for: Saxophone Ensemble and Percussion
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1073393
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 667806
Repertoire Explorer
for: Violin, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 137243
Œuvres instrumentales complètes III/1
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score (Hardcover)
Item no.: 677538
für Violoncello (2 Spieler auf einem Cello)
for: Cello
Item no.: 228089
Saint-Saëns, Camille. Œuvres instrumentales complètes I/3
Urtext
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score (Hardcover, Urtext edition)
Item no.: 684985
for: 5 brass winds
Item no.: 246621
Collection Anacrouse
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1323947
for: Clarinet, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 1201085
for: 2 flutes, piano
Book
Item no.: 994137
für Klavier und Orchester
Studienpartitur
for: Piano, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 633112
from The Carnival of the Animals
for: Contrabass Clarinet and Piano
Book
Item no.: 993844
for: 5 brass winds
Score, Parts
Item no.: 963246
for: Klarinettenchor
Score, Parts
Item no.: 995084
for: Flöte und Blasorchester
Score, Parts
Item no.: 994469
Terry Kenny Clarinet Quartet Series
for: 4 Bb Clarinets
Book
Item no.: 630412
Transcription by Camille Saint-Saëns
for: Piano [harp]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1646319
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 937917
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 886210
for: Organ
Single edition
Item no.: 941291
op. 33
for: Cello, piano
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 1618628
for: 2 Bassoons and Piano
Book
Item no.: 166499
for: 2 pianos
Book
Item no.: 626679
for: Violin, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 278515
Poème symphonique für Orchester
Eulenburg Studienpartituren
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 675916
Finale from Algerian Suite
BOVACO Classic CB
for: Concert band
Conductors part (C), Parts
Item no.: 1031805
for: Flute, clarinet, concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 796650
for: 4 MARIMBA
Score, Parts
Item no.: 584398
for: Organ 4 hands
Item no.: 163850
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 797021
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 963675
aus "Karneval der Tiere"
for: Trumpet, organ
Score, Parts
Item no.: 781230
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 799762
Band 2 - Frühwerk II
for: Organ
Item no.: 201997