Alterity Syllabus Unit 3
Introduction
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) considered himself a friend to animals and today one of his best-known compositions is the orchestral suite, The Carnival of the Animals, which he wrote to entertain his human friends at parties. The different animals featured in the movements were parodies of figures in the musical community like critics and conductors. The piece contains fourteen movements that each depict different animals including tortoises, kangaroos, and surprisingly, pianists. Filled with musical jokes, instruments mimic animal noises or imitate themes from other popular musical pieces. Fearing the piece was too silly, Saint-Saëns forbade this composition to be published until after his death. “The Swan” was the only movement published during his lifetime, in 1887.
He described his choice to publish the piece posthumously in a letter to his friend Charles Lebouc: “My will forbids any publication of my unpublished works, except for The Carnival of the Animals. Long live the animals! Down with the humans! except us two, of course” (23 July 1911). This letter reveals that while Saint-Saens did not want to be known for this work, he thought highly of the animals about whom he was composing, so this became the only exception to his publishing ban after his death.
Saint-Saëns’s musical style was less modern than other counterparts working in France during the nineteenth century. Although he lived into the twentieth century, his work is considered to fall within the Romantic era except for some neoclassicism toward the end of his career. Apart from the Carnival of the Animals, other notable compositions included the opera Samson and Delilah and his concerto works; the First Cello Concerto, the Second Piano Concerto, and the Third Violin Concerto.
Saint-Saëns himself did not fit into the identity categories we traditionally think of as Other. He was a European, White, able-bodied man with considerable privilege. In this unit, rather than focusing on Saint-Saëns himself, we turn attention to what his work, the Carnival of the Animals, reveals about alterity.
In thinking about what makes an animal, some questions emerge. How do animals sound and move in music? Is it possible for instrumental music to represent the “voices” of animals? How is humanity different than animality? What makes a human?
Module 1: Animals as Others and Others as Animals