Le Cygne - Music

Camille Saint-Saëns 1835-1921 Was A French Romantic Composer Pianist Organist And Teacher.

Born In Paris On 9th October 1835 Saint-Saëns Was A Child Prodigy. He Had Lessons With Camille-Marie Stamaty And Alexandre Pierre François Boëly Going On To The Paris Conservatoire In 1848 Where He Was Taught By Fromental Halévy .

He Soon Came To The Notice - And Earned The Admiration Of - Such Eminent Composers As Charles Gounod Gioacchino Rossini Hector Berlioz And Franz Liszt. He Was Appointed Organist At The Madeleine 1857-1875 And Taught At The École Niedermeyer From 1861 To 1865 Gabriel Fauré Being One Of His Pupils.

Aside From These Paid Positions Saint-Saëns Was Heavily Involved In The Musical World He Organised Concerts Of Liszt's Symphonic Poems He Worked To Revive Popular Interest In Earlier Especially Baroque Composers Such As Johann Sebastian Bach George Frideric Handel And Jean-Philippe Rameau But He Also On Behalf Of New French Music Co-Founded The Société Nationale De Musique In 1871. He Also Wrote On Music Science And History And Often Travelled Around Europe North Africa And South America.

Saint-Saëns Was A Virtuoso Pianist And A Prolific Composer. His Best-Known Work Among General Audience Is Le Carnaval Des Animaux 1886 Though He Forbade Performances Of It In His Lifetime Apart From "Le Cygne".

He Died In Algiers On 16th December 1921. . User-Contributed Text Is Available Under The Creative Commons By-SA License Additional Terms May Apply. read less