“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.
Reprint
Repertoire Explorer
Study Score 1410
for: Cello, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 633465
Editions Marc Reift
Recorder Music
for: Treble recorder, organ [piano]
Score, solo part
Item no.: 691299
from Samson and Delilah
for: Concert band
Sheet music
Item no.: 1314133
for: 4 cellos
Sheet music
Item no.: 1579237
for: Trumpet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246538
for: Tuba, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246525
for: Viola, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246521
for: Double bass, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246518
for: Tuba (B flat), guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246511
for: Symphonic orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 666829
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1200577
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 1201487
Harmonia-Mixed Choir
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 912703
Nr. 1 e-Moll op. 112 / Nr. 2 G-Dur op. 153
Bärenreiter Urtext
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Study score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 681886
for: Bassoon, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1251512
for: Trumpet, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1251511
for: Horn (E-flat), piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1251510
for: Violin, orchestra
Sheet music
Item no.: 1251417
for: Piccolo, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1251301
for: Viola, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1251284
for: Clarinet, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303218
for: Bassoon, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303214
for: Bass recorder, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303208
for: Violin, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303183
for: Double bass, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303177
for: Euphonium, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303175
Collection Anacrouse
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1323916
for: 2 pianos
2 Scores
Item no.: 161413
Eulenburg Studienpartituren
for: Violin, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 580484
for: Viola, piano
Book
Item no.: 970064
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 1200902
(in two volumes with French libretto)
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
2 Study scores
Item no.: 1344521
for: Bassoon, orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 994587
Repertoire Explorer
for: Piano, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1344385
for: Cello, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1653443
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1385328
for: Clarinet, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246559
op. 37
for: Flute, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1582267
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 763642
for: Bassoon, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 577811
for: Cello, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 478049
for: Flute, Violoncello and Piano
Book
Item no.: 997327
for: Mixed choir (SSATB), piano
Score
Item no.: 1587043
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1062148
for: Flexible ensemble (4 voices)
Sheet music
Item no.: 1210272
for: Percussion ensemble
Score
Item no.: 927116
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 179139
for: Organ
Sheet music
Item no.: 2881