Anne is our of volunteers who offers to spend the occasional afternoon discussing various topics with our residents. Recently Anne held a musical afternoon listening to a well known piece of music.
The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnaval des animaux) is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The work, about 25 minutes in duration, was written for private performance by two pianos and chamber ensemble; Saint-Saëns prohibited public performance of the work during his lifetime, feeling that its frivolity would damage his standing as a serious composer. The suite was published in 1922, the year after his death.
A public performance in the same year was greeted with enthusiasm, and the work has remained among his most popular. In addition to the original version for chamber ensemble, the suite is frequently performed with a full orchestral complement of strings. Each piece represents the sounds of animals.
Anne also brought in fossils to allow residents to handle them and see the intricate details that are formed. Residents were inspired by this type of music and requested to listen to more of this type of music in the future.
Carnival of the Animals musical suite:
Piece 1 – represents a lion. The music is very grand. You may recognise part of the piece a slow version of a fanfare
Piece 2 – Hens and roosters. Represents sounds of pecking on the ground and flapping of the wings
Piece 3 – Swift animals – piano is used to move quickly across from low to high notes. This gives an impression of animals running fast
Piece 4 – Tortoise – very slow piece of music which is representative of the animal
Piece 5 – Elephants – double bass
Piece 6 – kangaroos – piano moments representing jumping and resting
Piece 7 – Aquarium – piano, glockenspiel play music that goes up and down quickly
Piece 8 – Donkeys – violin makes the sound of the animal as it sounds its voice
Piece 9 – Cuckoo – clarinet
Piece 10 – Aviary – flute plays tune with lots of high notes of birds singing
Piece 11 – No animals – scales of music
Piece 12 – This piece is called ‘fossils’
Piece 13 – Swan – cello plays graceful notes
Piece 14 – A mixture of all animals together
Follow the link below to listen to the music:
