Stories of Symphonic Music / A Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures, and Tone-poems from Beethoven to the Present Day

SAINT-SAENS

(Camille Saint-SaËns: born in Paris, October 9, 1835; still living there)

"OMPHALE'S SPINNING-WHEEL," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 1: Op. 31

Le Rouet d'Omphale, composed in 1871, was first a piano piece; it was afterwards made over for orchestra and performed in Paris at a Concert Populaire on April 14, 1872.

The following note, in French, prefaces the score:

"The subject of this symphonic poem is feminine seductiveness, the triumphant contest of weakness against strength. The spinning-wheel is merely a pretext; it is chosen simply for the sake of its rhythmical suggestion and from the viewpoint of the general form of the piece."

The note conveys the further slightly ironical information that "those who are interested in the study of details will see on page 19 (letter J) [of the score] Hercules groaning in the bonds which he cannot break [a laboring phrase in the 'cellos and double-basses, repeated with cumulative expression], and on page 32 (letter L) Omphale mocking the hero's futile efforts [a theme sung by the oboe]."

The music has been interpreted as falling naturally into the three following sections: "(1) The power of feminine allurement. Triumphant struggle of weakness against strength; in fact, Omphale's fascination of Hercules. (2) Hercules in bondage; or, as the author has it, 'Hercules groaning under the bonds which he cannot break.' (3) Omphale deriding the vain efforts of the hero."

"PHAËTON," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 2: Op. 39

PhaËton was produced in Paris, under Eduard Colonne, at a concert at the ThÉÂtre du ChÂtelet, December 7, 1873. The score has this preface:

"PhaËton has obtained leave to drive his father's, the Sun's, chariot through the heavens. But his unskilful hands lead the steeds astray. The flaming chariot, thrown out of its course, approaches the terrestrial regions. The whole universe is about to perish in flames, when Jupiter strikes the rash PhaËton with his thunderbolt." [131]

The portentous drive is first pictured, the gallop of the horses being indicated by an imitative figure in the strings, wood-wind, and horns. A suave and noble theme for the horns has been said to suggest celestial visions glimpsed by the charioteer in the course of his daring flight.[132] The furious rhythm of the drive is heard again, increasing to a precipitate pace. It is cut short by the Jovian thunderbolt (kettle-drums, bass-drum, cymbals, tam-tam). Then, as its reverberations die away, we hear again the august harmonies of the second theme; there is a reminiscence of the opening motive (of the ride), and the music ends ppp.

"DANCE OF DEATH" ["DANSE MACABRE"], SYMPHONIC POEM No. 3: Op. 40

This symphonic poem illustrates a fantastic poem by Henri Cazalis, lines from which are prefixed to the score. They are as follows (in a prose translation made by Mr. W. F. Apthorp):

"Zig and Zig and Zig, Death plays in cadence,
Beating time with his heel upon a tombstone;
Death plays a dance-tune, Zig and Zig and Zig, on his fiddle.
The winter wind blows, and the night is dark;
Groans come from under the lindens;
White skeletons flit across the gloom,
Running and skipping in their capacious shrouds.
Zig and Zig and Zig, capers every one;
You hear the dancers' bones rattle.

"But whist! Of a sudden they quit their dance;
They rush off helter-skelter, the cock has crowed."

A violin solo impersonates Death the fiddler, while the rattling of the bones of the grewsome dancers is delineated by the xylophone (wood-harmonica). The uncanny dance increases in wildness and abandon until it is cut short by the cock-crow (oboe).

"THE YOUTH OF HERCULES," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 4: Op. 50

La Jeunesse d'Hercule, first performed in Paris, at a concert in the ThÉÂtre du ChÂtelet, January 28, 1877, bears as a preface to the score the following note (in French):

"LEGEND
"Mythology relates that Hercules, upon entering life, saw two paths opening before him, the path of pleasure and the path of virtue.
"Indifferent to the seductions of Nymphs and Bacchantes, the hero chooses the path of struggles and combats, at the end of which he perceives, through the flames of the funeral pyre, the reward of immortality."

The music has been interpreted as a succession of characterizations in this order: "(1) Irresolution [Andante sostenuto: muted[133] violins; wood-wind, strings, and wood]; (2) character of the path of virtue [Allegro moderato: strings, without mutes, in full harmony]; (3) seductiveness of the nymphs [Andantino]; (4) allurements of the Bacchantes [Allegro: flutes at first, later other wood-wind, strings and wood, full orchestra]; (5) renewed questionings [Adagio: strings, horns, wood-wind]; (6) choice of the path of virtue and consequent struggles [Andante sostenuto and Allegro animato: the theme of Virtue played by clarinet, afterwards by oboe; later, the theme of pleasure heard in the wood-wind against harp arpeggios]; (7) the funeral pyre and immortality beyond [Maestoso: triumphant supremacy of the theme of Virtue, in an orchestral apotheosis]."

FOOTNOTES:

[131] Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.

[132] This theme has also been said to represent "nymphs bemoaning PhaËton's danger, and, at last, his death."

[133] See page 12 (foot-note).

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