Camille Saint-Saëns: On Music and Musicians
Camille Saint-Saëns: On Music and Musicians
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Abstract
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint–Saëns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint–Saëns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siecle and early 20th Century world. He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student. Yet Saint–Saëns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist. Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint–Saëns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was “not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues” that distinguishes the good composer. Saint–Saëns’ writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siecle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice.
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Front Matter
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Part I Music
- 1 Introduction: (Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 1–31)
- 2 Art for Art's Sake: (“L’art pour l’art”, Ecole Buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 135–140)
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3
Harmony and Melody: (“Harmonie et mélodie”, Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 1–36)
- 4 The Birmingham Festivals: (“Festivals de Birmingham”, Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 141–154)
- 5 Musical Eccentricities: (“Divagations musicales”, Au courant de la vie, Dorbon-Ainé, 1914, 45–51)
- 6 Hélène: (Au courant de la vie, Dorbon-Ainé, 1914, 71–76)
- 7 On Not Writing a Preface: (Prefatory Letter to George Docquois, Le plaisir des jours et des nuits, Paris, 1907; Autograph Ms, BNF, Dept de la musique, Rés F.1644 [5])
- 8 Musical Trends: (“Le mouvement musical”, Letter to the Editor of La revue de l’art, Paris, 12 November 1897, Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’édition artistique, 1899, 221–229)
- 9 In Defence of Opéra-Comique: (“La défense de l’opéra-comique”, Portraits et Souvenirs, Société d’édition artistique, 1899, 169–176)
- 10 The Old Conservatoire: (“Le vieux Conservatoire”, Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 39–47)
- 11 The Organ: (“L’orgue”, Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 169–176)
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Part II Musicians
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12
Meyerbeer: (Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 277–300)
- 13 Rossini: (Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 261–267)
- 14 Berlioz I: (“Publication de ses lettres intimes”, Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 249–255)
- 15 Berlioz II: (Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’edition artistique, 1899, 2–14)
- 16 Liszt I: (Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 155–172)
- 17 Liszt II: (Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’edition artistique, 15–34)
- 18 Wagner: The Ring of the Nibelung and the Bayreuth Premiere, August 1876: (“L’anneau du Nibelung et les représentations de Bayreuth, Août 1876”, Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1885, 37–98)
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19
The Wagnerian Illusion: (“L’illusion wagnérienne”, Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’édition artistique, 1899, 206–220)
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20
Charles Gounod: (Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’édition artistique, 1899, 35–97)
- 21 Jacques Offenbach I: (Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 217–224)
- 22 Jacques Offenbach II: (Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 301–307)
- 23 Memories of Childhood: (“Souvenirs d’enfance”, Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 1–10)
- 24 Georges Bizet: (Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’édition artistique, 1899, 124–127)
- 25 Jules Massenet: (Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 269–275)
- 26 Pauline Viardot: (Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 217–223)
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27
Four Poems to Friends
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12
Meyerbeer: (Ecole buissonnière, Pierre Lafitte, 1913, 277–300)
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End Matter
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