Between the years 1830 and 1900, music turned towards the emotional. From intimate to dramatic to rousing, you can’t help but be moved in some way by the compositions of the Romantic Period.
And it wasn’t just music that had emotions running high. The world watched while 2.5 million people perished as potato crops failed in Europe, Great Britain and Russia. In 1849, the first gold seekers arrived in San Francisco, anxious to stake their claim. And the Americans were fighting again, but this time they were battling each other.
This was the golden age of the piano with Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt leading the way. A new dance craze, the waltz, emerged. Music was all about individual expression and one of the most expressive of these individuals was Camille Saint-Saens.
Born in Paris in 1835, Saint-Saens was nothing short of a child prodigy. At the age of three he was taking piano lessons, making his debut at ten. A virtuoso at the piano, he was also an accomplished organist. In fact, he was so enamored of this instrument that he wrote his third symphony featuring the organ as a complement to the orchestra.
But by far the most entertaining of Saint-Saens works is “The Carnival of the Animals.” It would appear that he knew in advance just how popular this piece would be. He actually forbid its publication for fear it would overshadow his more serious work. It wasn’t until after his death that the world was treated to this parody of then contemporary music. Each movement was named for an animal. Listen as elephants, tortoises and a swan cavort. Who said classical music couldn’t be fun?