Le Cygne (Saint-Saëns)

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Le Cygne captures the idea of a swimming swan.

Le Cygne, or The Swan, is the thirteenth movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. This piece features a solo cello in tenor clef and an accompaniment piano.

1 Music
2 Uses in choreography
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Music

The piece is in 6/4 time, with a key signature of G major. It makes use of legato and slurring, the music should flow like a swan gliding through the water. This piece is often played using much vibrato.

This is the only movement from the Carnival of the Animals that the composer would allow to be played in public during his lifetime as he thought the remaining movements were too frivolous and would damage his reputation as a serious composer.

The piece was written in tenor clef, although there are some arrangements in bass clef.

Because the high range of the cello is displayed in this piece, the voice is often misnamed as the violin. The cello, however, has an extremely large range and can play in this register, and its tones are rounder and more mellow.

The Swan

From The Carnival of the Animals. Performed by John Mitchel

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[edit] Uses in choreography

Further information: The Dying Swan

Le Cygne is often known as The Dying Swan, after a poem by Tennyson. Inspired by swans that she had seen in public parks, Anna Pavlova worked with choreographer Michel Fokine, who had read the poem, to create the famous 1905 solo ballet dance which is now closely associated with this music. According to tradition, the swan in Pavlova's dance is badly injured and dying. However, Maya Plisetskaya re-interpreted the swan simply as elderly and stubbornly resisting the effects of aging; much like herself (she performed The Swan at a gala on her 70th birthday). The piece has also been widely used in figure skating, notably by American skater Johnny Weir, who skated to it at the 2006 Winter Olympics.^[1]