Identifier: orchestraitsinst00sing (find matches)
Title: The orchestra and its instruments
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors: Singleton, Esther, d. 1930
Subjects: Orchestra Musical instruments
Publisher: New York : The Symphony society of New York
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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d elaborate, is always clear and polished to the last degree. The exquisite Symphonic Poem, called Le Le Rouet d'Omphale, may be taken as an example. It is not merely a beautiful piece of descriptive writing, but it is beautifully scored. Camille Saint-Saëns is the oldest living French composer. He was born in 1835 in Paris and early showed his great talent for music. At the age of seven he began to study the piano with Stamaty and harmony with Maleden. In 1846, at the age of eleven, he appeared at a concert in the Salle Pleyel; and a year later entered the Conservatory. Here he made a name for himself. His Symphony, composed at the age of sixteen, was successfully performed. In 1858 he became organist at the Madeleine in Paris and astonished everyone by his feats of improvisation. Meantime, he continued composing. He has produced an immense number of works that include every kind of composition from operas to chamber music, songs and pieces for the harp. Saint-Saens has also been an extensive traveller
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H w u z ou vc >—* G\C/) M w «* <en I j-i Z < C/) THE ORCHESTRA 269 and has spent much time in Algiers. He is an incomparable pianist, a fine musical critic, and an excellent writer. Saint-Saens is another instance of the general culture required of the modern musician —the type that came into existence after the Revolution of 1830 (see page 244). Saint-Saens was made an officer of the Legion d'Honneur in 1884. On June 2, 1896, the fiftieth anniversary of his first public appearance was celebrated in the Salle Pleyel, on which occasion Taffanel conducted the orchestra and Sarasate played a sonata by Saint-Saens (see illustration facing 268), with the composer at the piano. At the age of seventy he came to America and astonished his audiences by playin ghis five piano concertos, accompanied by Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra, with marvellous skill and the fire of youth. Debussy is a modern of the moderns; and, moreover, he has led music into a new

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