Le cygne
 Alisa Weilerstein and Jason Yoder perform Camille Saint-Saëns's "Le cygne" in a marimba-and-cello arrangement at the White House Evening of Classical Music (2009-11-04)
|
|
| Problems listening to these files? See media help. | |
Le cygne, pronounced: [lə siɲ], or The Swan, is the 13th movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. This piece features a solo cello in tenor clef and two accompaniment pianos.
Contents |
[edit] Music
The piece is in 6/4 time, with a key signature of G major. It makes use of legato and slurring; the music should flow like a swan gliding through the water.
This is the only movement from the Carnival of the Animals that the composer would allow to be played in public during his lifetime as he thought the remaining movements were too frivolous and would damage his reputation as a serious composer.
The piece was written in tenor clef, although there are some arrangements in bass clef.
Because of its slow tempo and legato performance indication, the movement is suitable for performance on the theremin and has joined Rachmaninoff's Vocalise and Massenet's Thaïs Méditation among the classical works central to the theremin repertoire.
[edit] Uses in choreography
Le cygne is often known as The Dying Swan, after a poem by Tennyson. Inspired by swans that she had seen in public parks, Anna Pavlova worked with choreographer Michel Fokine, who had read the poem, to create the famous 1905 solo ballet dance which is now closely associated with this music. According to tradition, the swan in Pavlova's dance is badly injured and dying. However, Maya Plisetskaya re-interpreted the swan simply as elderly and stubbornly resisting the effects of aging; much like herself (she performed The Swan at a gala on her 70th birthday). Eventually the piece came to be considered one of Pavlova's trademarks.[1]
[edit] Transcriptions and adaptations
In the 1890s, Louis van Waefelghem adapted Le cygne for viola or viola d'amore and piano. The edition was published by Durand in 1895.
In Leonard Bernstein's famous recording of the piece with the New York Philharmonic the melody is performed on double bass by a 20 year old Gary Karr.
Monserrat Caballe recorded a version in which she vocalizes sections of the melody accompanied by a piano.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Garafola, Lynn (2005). Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance. New York: Wesleyan University Press. pp. 155–156. ISBN 9780819566744.
[edit] External links
- MP3 file of Le cygne
- Performance of Le cygne
