Camille Saint-Saëns was an example of the consummate musician as he was a performer, conductor, composer and musicologist. Music was not his only interest, as he also studied many areas of science such as archeology, botany and especially astronomy. He was keen on mathematics and literature as well.
His musical output included works for solo piano, piano and orchestra, symphonies, opera, and chamber music. He also composed music for the solo organ, but much of it is relatively unknown. It was as a professional organist that Saint-Saëns started his musical career when he was 18 years old in 1853 as church organist in Paris. He spent around 20 years in the service of the church, and then made his way as a freelance composer, performer on the piano and organ, and conductor.
Saint-Saëns held only one teaching position in his entire career, at the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris, a school that was founded to develop organists and musicians for the churches of France. He was the head of piano studies and remained at the school for 5 years. One of the students he taught there was Gabriel Fauré, and the two became life-long friends. Saint-Saëns and some of his other friends took Fauré along with them on a trip to Brittany in the north of France in 1866. While traveling to an ancient chapel in the area, Saint-Saëns heard some folksongs of the region and used them as material in his Opus 7 work 3 Rhapsodies sur des cantiques bretons,
Pélérinage au pardon de Sainte Anne-la-Palud.
The third rhapsody of the set is in three sections. The first section begins with a sad tune in A minor. The second section is a short musette tune first played on the reed stops of the organ. The next section begins with a more robust tune first heard in the pedals of the organ. This grows in intensity as it is repeated with more stops of the organ. The beginning tune then reappears, followed by a repeat of the musette tune.
Late in 1827 there was an auction held in the city of Vienna, Austria. Beethoven had died in the spring of that year, and his belongings were being sold. The partner of Anton Diabelli, a music publisher in Vienna, attended the auction and purchased an unfinished manuscript of a piece for piano. Diabelli said that the manuscript had an inscription on it that read in German: Die Wut über den verlorenen Groschen, ausgetobt in einer Caprice that translates to English as Rage Over a Lost Penny, Vented in a Caprice.
The trouble is that the writing is not Beethoven's. Scholars believe it is the handwriting of Anton Schindler, Beethoven's friend and part-time secretary in his last years. Schindler was footloose and fancy free with his memories of Beethoven, and was not above forging documents and changing things to make himself look more important in Beethoven's life. He was the first to write a biography of Beethoven, and it has proven to be somewhat unreliable.
The opus number 129 was issued posthumously to the piece as it was published by Diabelli in 1828, but 1795 is the year written on the manuscript, so it is a piece from early in Beethoven's career when he was still taking Vienna by storm as a virtuoso performer on the piano. Beethoven himself put a title on the piece in Italian: Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio which translates to Rondo in the Hungarian style, almost a caprice. Hungarian music was synonymous with Gypsy music at the time, and remained so until musicologists and musicians like Béla Bartók studied the folk music of the area.
But Diabelli knew a good story would help sell the music, and the work became one of Beethoven's most well-known. And the work is still known for the title written on the manuscript in a different hand as it suits the music very well.
This rondo is not a standard type of rondo where a set theme alternates between other episodes, as the rondo theme itself is varied with each repetition. And the tempo has very little respite from the Allegro vivace tempo designation at the beginning of the piece. Each episode and return of the rondo theme is at a frantic pace.
Charles Alkan's set of piano pieces titled Souvenirs: Trois Morceaux Dans le Genre Pathétique, Opus 15 (Three Pieces In The Pathetic Style) was published in 1837. Alkan's music was not generally reviewed in any of the music periodicals of the time outside of his native France, and it is to those French publications that musicologists and researchers must look for any contemporary views of his music. Even those are rather sparse, owing in some part to his reclusive nature in later years. These three pieces are an exception, as Robert SchumannandFranz Liszt made their opinions known.
Schumann's review appeared in 1838 in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik,the periodical that he edited and wrote for. Schumann did not like the work at all. Some of the things he wrote concerning it:
One finds oneself... gripped by the lack of art and real life...here we find little more than frailty and vulgarity devoid of imagination. The studies have titles... and are distinguished throughout theior fifty pages by a deluge of notes and a lack of even the slightest indication of performance markings.... We may choose to protect talent when it loses its way, but there has to be some kind of demonstration of musicianship... if even that becomes questionable then we are forced to turn our backs, unmoved.
Very strong words, with even more negativity in the rest of the review. Schumann was correct about one thing though; there is not a hint of any performance markings in the first edition. No slurs, tempo or dynamic symbols at all. Alkan dedicated the work to Franz Liszt, who he became acquainted with when they lived in Paris. Whether that had anything to do with the omission of any performing markings isn't known.
The review by Liszt of the work is markedly different than Schumann's. Liszt did take Alkan to task in some of the aspects, but for the most part was happy with the work. That they were dedicated to him probably didn't hurt either:
The caprices of M. Alkan, after reading and re-reading them many times, show themselves to be distinguished compositions...and are likely to... invoke great interest with musicians.
1. Amie-moi (Love me) - The French word pathétique in the title of this work is usually translated as pathetic, which has a multitude of meanings. When used in musical works, it has the meaning of music which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, love, etc. The titles that Alkan gave to each movement give a clue as to the underlying emotions of the music. The first piece begins in the key of seven flates, A-flat minor. It is similar in feeling to the music of Alkan's friend Chopin. The music slowly grows intense as more and more notes pile into measures until the climax is reached. After the climax, the music returns to the opening themes until there is a shift to A-flat major. The piece ends gently with an arpeggio up the keyboard. 2. Le vent (The wind) - Written in B minor, this piece opens with a sad melody in the left hand as the righthand plays chromatic runs of notes in simulation of the wind. The hands change roles, and then back again before a central section in D major appears. When the central section is over, chromatic scales for both hands lead up to a varied repeat of the opening material. This was one of Alkan's most well-known pieces for a time, indeed, it was the only piece of Alkan's that was performed with any kind of regularity. The piece continues with an extended trill and chromatic runs in both hands until it ends with a B major chord. 3. Morte (Death) -Written in E-flat minor, the music opens deep in the bass end of the piano until the ancient Dies Irae hymn is heard. The hymn continues in thick chords and is transformed into a kind of introduction to a slow, sad theme first heard in single notes that become full chords. It grows in intensity until it reaches a short climax, where upon a solemn but persistent B-flat punctuates the theme. The music grows in intensity (and difficulty) and a theme in the major creeps in for a bit. but things go back to impassioned as the ending is relentlessly pursued until a long pause is reached. The Dies Irae returns. The opening of theme of the first piece in the set also returns for a short repeat. A trill in the left hand deep in the bass turns into chromatic runs as in the second piece in the set. The right hand traverses the keyboard slowly as the left handed trill resumes. Two resounding, loud sixteenth note chords end this longest piece of the set, in E-flat minor.
Camille Saint-Saëns was an example of the consummate musician as he was a performer, conductor, composer and musicologist. Music was not his only interest, as he also studied many areas of science such as archeology, botany and especially astronomy. He was keen on mathematics and literature as well.
