Biography

Saint-Saëns gets his unusual name from the town of Saint-Saens in Normandy, home of his father’s family.  The name itself was a transformation of the medieval Saint Sidonius of the region.  The umlaut over the “e” was added by Saint-Saëns’s father, who died when the composer was barely three months old.  Saint-Saëns was thus raised by two women, his mother (the strict one) and his great aunt (the fun one).  His mother had planned to have three sons, the first one a musician, the second a painter, and the third a sculptor.  That obviously didn’t happen, but she did pour her considerable energies into making her only child a musician.  This was a lifelong project conducted with a heavy hand.  In 1870, when Saint-Saëns wrote to her with his concerns about an upcoming concert (keep in mind that he was 35 at that point), she replied that “I used to think you a man; you are merely a coward.  I treat you with contempt...Either you will play well, or I will renounce you as my child.”  Gee, thanks, Mom!  Good to know you are in my corner!

Fortunately for the composer, his innate musical talent was immense.  A child prodigy, he began piano lessons at age 3 (the same age he started composing!) and was playing Mozart and Beethoven concertos in public when he was 10.  As a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he studied composition with Fromental Halévy (1799–1862; best known for his opera La Juive); Gounod was also a mentor.  He never won the Prix de Rome despite multiple tries, but the same was true for Ravel; it was not always the most talented composer who carried off that prize.

By the time Saint-Saëns was 22 he was organist at what was possibly the most important church in Paris at that time in terms of organ playing: La Madeleine; he retained that position until 1877.  From 1861 to 1865 he was a professor at the École Niedermeyer, an institution geared toward improving music in French churches.  Fauré, to whom he became very close, was his best pupil there.

Saint-Saëns served in the army during the Franco-Prussian war, and after France’s humiliating defeat in that fracas he was a co-founder of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871.  The society’s purpose was to foster instrumental music by French composers, with an initial emphasis on chamber music.  The society thus played a crucial role in French musical life; heretofore opera had been valued above other genres.  Saint-Saëns served as the first Vice President, but he resigned in 1886 when other members agreed to allow performance of music by non-French composers.

In 1877 a large bequest from admirer made him financially independent and provided more time for composition; the honors began to roll in.  He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1881 (though it annoyed him that Massenet was elected before he was); he became its president in 1901.  He became an officier of the Légion d’Honneur in 1884 and a grand officier in 1900, and in 1913 he received their Grande Croix.  After the death of his mother in 1888 he moved all his possessions to Dieppe, where the Musée Saint-Saëns opened in 1890.  He received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge, and a statue of him was erected in Dieppe in 1907; statues of living individuals, then as now, were extremely rare.  As a mark of his stature in French music, he was accorded a state funeral upon his death.

I am sorry to say that Saint-Saëns did not meet with similar success in his personal life.  In 1875 he married a woman he barely knew who was less than half his age (she was 19).  The bride moved into Saint-Saëns’s apartment, where he still lived with his mother (no honeymoon).  Mère Saint-Saëns did not like the new Madame Saint-Saëns at all, and really, you have to feel sorry for the poor kid, stuck at home with an overbearing mother-in-law while her husband traveled frequently to concertize and oversee premieres and theatrical productions.  Eventually two sons were born, but tragedy struck.  In 1878 the elder child (2 and 1/2 years old) fell to his death from an open fourth-story window; just six weeks later his six-month-old brother died from pneumonia.  That was the beginning of the end of the marriage.  The unhappy couple struggled on for a few years, but in 1881 Saint-Saëns told his wife (via letter, not in person; the equivalent today would be sending a text message) that it was over.  She moved back to her family’s home and never saw her husband alive again.  She survived him by almost 30 years, dying in 1950.  Sadness all around.

Saint-Saëns was one of those incredibly talented musicians who knew everybody and did everything; he was composer and performer (pianist, organist, conductor), conductor, critic, editor, and teacher—a “complete musician,” as he was called.  He toured as a virtuoso pianist (he premiered each of his five piano concertos) and was called upon to inaugurate new organs—and 19th-century France was a golden age of organ construction.  He worked as a music critic and wrote about aesthetics and did editorial work on (among others) Beethoven, Gluck, Liszt, Mozart, and Rameau, for whom he was editor of the complete works edition.

His wide-ranging interests (which extended far beyond music) led to writing and publishing books, essays, poetry, and scientific articles; he lectured to the Astronomical Society and in 1912 his article “Blindness in Snails” was published in the Revue scientifique.  And he loved to travel, especially to warmer climates (prompted by poor health in general and a dislike of gloomy Parisian winters in particular).  He was very fond of Algeria (at that time a French colony) but also visited North America twice, South American three times, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for a three-month visit, Saigon, Egypt and the Middle East (many times).  And his European travels (normally in connection with professional obligations) ranged from England to Russia.  Despite his poor health he was still making arduous trips into his 80s (the United States when he was 80; South America when he was 81).  He composed, performed, and traveled practically up until the end (and was in fact in Algeria when he died).

Saint-Saëns was a friend or acquaintance of pretty much everybody who was significant in the musical world of the time, including (to name just a few) Berlioz (who quipped about Saint-Saëns that “he knows everything but lacks inexperience”), Liszt (who considered him the world’s best organist), Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Pauline Viardot, Bizet, Massenet, Lalo, Augusta Holmès (to whom he proposed marriage), Meyerbeer, Lalo, Franck (who dedicated his piano quintet to Saint-Saëns despite their many disagreements), Widor, d’Indy, Debussy, Ravel, etc. etc. etc.  He was noted for his acerbic tongue and “overly combative manner” but he was also a very generous musician who constantly used his fame and stature (and time and money) to help younger musicians—Fauré especially but also others including Widor, Lalo, and Debussy; he was an early advocate of that last composer and his support helped him win the Prix de Rome.

Saint-Saëns suffered the fate of many long-lived musicians who are of (or ahead of) their time when they are young and are then seen as reactionary old fogeys when they are old.  It is certainly true that Saint-Saëns was not a fan (to put it mildly) of the musical modernism of the late 19th/early 20th century, and it is also true that his is essentially a conservative musical style that many viewed as superficial.  And it is undeniable that his popularity has faded considerably in the 100+ years since his death.  But some of his pieces are truly excellent ones that have retained their appeal (see the works list given below) and others continue to make for enjoyable listening even if they are not profound.  And he was forward thinking in many ways.  To list a few:

He was a champion of the new-fangled symphonic poem, a genre more or less created by Liszt; Saint-Saëns paved the way for its adoption by French composers.

He embraced cyclic structure in various compositions.

He helped expand the repertoire for the cello.

He was the first serious composer to write music for film.

He was a pioneer in the use of program notes.

He wrote music that used not just 5/4 and 7/4 meter signatures, but also 11/4.

He was an early fan of Wagner, although he disliked Wagnerites for their blind devotion.

He was an early advocate of Schumann and Mozart in France, at a time when they were not especially popular there; ditto for Bach, Handel, and French baroque keyboard composers.  Thus, despite being an ardent advocate of French music and musicians, he recognized and valued good music whatever its origins.

Oratorio de Noël

Saint-Saëns wrote lots of choral music, although a fair amount of it was created for specific occasions that are no longer relevant today.  The works list given below includes the pieces most often cited as still being of greatest interest.  One potential choral work that “got away” was Saint-Saëns’s best opera, Samson et Dalila, which began as an oratorio and has been performed as such many times over the years.  Certainly its biblical theme is much more typical of an oratorio than an opera.

The Oratorio de Noël (Christmas Oratorio) is the most famous choral work by Saint-Saëns.  It was written in haste towards the end of his first year at La Madeleine (1858), for performance at the Midnight Mass on Christmas.  Originally planned to include winds (but not organ), he dropped the winds and added organ.  The other instruments are five-part strings and harp (the first performance in fact used two harps, each playing different music).  The final version used a single harp, appearing briefly in No. 9 but (with the organ) forming the entire instrumental accompaniment for Nos. 5 and 7.

Saint-Saëns began composing on December 4 and finished on the 15th.  The first version consisted of six movements only: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10.  The other four movements were added later—probably not much later—and the vocal score was published in 1863; the full score had to wait until 1892.  Saint-Saëns made various revisions over the years.  The work was (deservedly) quite popular, selling thousands of copies over the next 60 years.

The vocal writing matched the forces at Saint-Saëns’s disposal.  He had five excellent soloists available (soprano, mezzo, alto, tenor, and baritone) but only a small amateur pick-up choir.  Thus, the solo parts are often demanding and operatic in nature, while the chorus parts are quite simple (though still effective).  The oratorio was dedicated to one of the singers, the Vicomtesse de Grandval (Marie Reiset) who was in fact a composer herself and one of Saint-Saëns’s piano students.

Saint-Saëns’s use of Latin for his piece was not so common in French church music of the time, and the texts are not actually a straightforward telling of the Christmas story (although they do begin with the Gospel version of Luke).  The texts are taken from various parts of the Bible, and some of these also served liturgical functions at Christmas.  The text of No. 7 is that of the Gradual for the Midnight Mass, and that of No. 6 serves as the psalm verse (and doxology) for the Introit of the same mass.  The text of No. 5 is the Gradual text for the Christmas mass at dawn.  The layout below gives the initial Latin text for each movement as well as the English incipit from the Schirmer/Kalmus edition.  Since the English is a singing translation, some of the versions are quite free.  In the case of No. 7, the translator didn’t even try to approximate the Latin but instead substituted a version of the Magnificat.

Very likely Saint-Saëns had Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (in reality a series of cantatas) in mind when he wrote his piece.  He was a subscriber to the new collected works edition of Bach, and the volume containing the Christmas Oratorio was published two years before he undertook his own oratorio.  The Bärenreiter edition (discussed below) of Saint-Saëns’s work goes into more detail about the similarities, but the emphasis on solo rather than choral writing, with a concluding chorale, is something found in numerous Bach cantatas.

The work opens with a gorgeous instrumental prelude that sets the mood for this intimate and peaceful work; Saint-Saëns marked on the score that it was “in the style of Bach.”  The 12/8 meter signature immediately links it to the instrumental tradition of Christmas pastorals (think of the Pastoral in Messiah).  Saint-Saëns does an excellent job of contrast with the movements—even more impressive given that the work was composed in at least two stages.  Two of my favorite movements were added later: the dramatic choral #6 that shifts from minor to major for its consoling conclusion, and #9, which gathers all the performing forces together yet brings back the beautiful opening of the entire work.  It’s really no surprise that this lovely work has been in the choral repertoire for more than 150 years.

Layout

1. Prélude	Allegretto pastorale	12/8	G Major	orchestra
2. Récit et Choeur Et pastores erant/There were shepherds (Luke 2:8–14)
Récit		C	G Major	SATBar solos
Choeur	Allegro	C	A Major	chorus
3. Air Expectans expectavi/Patiently have I waited (Psalm 40:1)
	Andante espressivo	3/4	E Major	Mezzo solo
4. Air et Choeur Domine ego credidi/In my heart I believe O Lord (John 11:27)
	Moderato commodo	C	C Major	T and chorus
5. Duo Benedictus qui venit/Blessed is he who cometh (Psalm 118:26–28)
	Allegro moderato	C	a minor	S/Bar solos
6. Choeur Quare fremuerunt gentes/Why do the people rage (Psalm 2:1/doxology)
	Allegro moderato	C	d minor	chorus
	Più lento	3/4	Bb Major	chorus
7. Trio Tecum principium/[My soul doth magnify] (Psalm 110:3)
	Andante con moto	C	g minor/G major	STBar solos
8. Quatuor Alleluia, laudate o caeli/Alleluia, ye heavens sing praises (Isaiah 49:13)
	Andantino	6/8	D Major	SMABar solos
9. Quintette et Choeur Consurge, filia Sion/Arise now, daughter of Sion (Lamentations 2:19; Isaiah 62:1)
	Allegretto pastorale	12/8	G Major	SMATBar solos; chorus
10. Choeur Tollite hostias/[Praise ye the Lord of Hosts] (Psalm 96:8, 11, 13)
	Maestoso	C	G Major	chorus

A Note on Editions

Eastman’s Sibley Music Library being the fabulous resource that it is, I was able to consult multiple editions of this work.  The following makes no claim to be comprehensive, however.

If you want to sing the work in English (certainly simpler for English-language choirs, since the Latin is not the familiar Mass, Magnificat, or Requiem text we’re used to singing), you’re pretty much stuck with the old G. Schirmer piano/vocal score, now taken over by Kalmus.  The G. Schirmer edition dates back to 1891 at the latest, and the English translation is credited to N.H. Dole.  Kalmus appears to have taken over the plates for that edition; an early Kalmus version I got from Sibley (undated) cost $1.00; the current Kalmus reprint I just purchased online was $12.99.  None of these has measure numbers, of course, because that would be cheating.

In terms of full scores (using the Latin text only), at least two more recent editions are available, a Carus edition from 1982 edited by Thomas Kohlhase (announcing that it is based on the 1869 Paris edition), and a more recent Bärenreiter “Urtext” volume from 2021, edited by Christina M. Stahl.  If I were a conductor (and using the original Latin text, of course), I’d go with the latter.  Aside from the fact that it just looks nicer, it’s got lots of auxiliary information: an extended preface, notes on performance practice, information on the pronunciation of French Latin, and an IPA of the text.  Plus translations of the Latin.  All of this is in three languages (French, German, English).  The Carus edition just has a short trilingual introduction.  There’s a piano/vocal score for both of these full scores.

Works (selected)

It’s actually rather impressive that Saint-Saëns and other French composers were able to keep producing good music amid the turmoil of French political life in the nineteenth century.  As Berlioz put it, making works of art during all the political chaos was like “trying to play billiards on a storm-tossed ship.”  Saint-Saëns certainly had dry spells in his compositional life, especially when his personal life was in crisis.  And it took a while for him to be seen as an important composer, not just a virtuoso performer who also composed.

I know some of the pieces listed below, but others are included on the basis on what I’ve read about him by scholars who specialize in his music.  There’s an asterisk next to the half dozen that are his most popular, and they are all terrific.

Opera/Stage Works

Saint-Saëns wrote many operas (the most prestigious genre in France during his lifetime), but only the one listed first has held the stage.  The three after that are said to be worthy of revival.

• Samson et Dalila*
• Etienne Marcel
• Henry VIII (especially the ballet music)
• Ascanio
• “Famous Air du Rossignol” from incidental music to Parysatis

Symphonic Poems

• Danse macabre*
  This famous work uses a scordatura violin (strings tuned to different pitches than expected) and is the first major orchestral work to use xylophone
• Le Rouet d’Omphale
• Phaëton
• La Jeunesse d’Hercule

Other Orchestral

• Carnival of the Animals* (Le Carnaval des animaux)
  Saint-Saëns forbid public performances of this delightful musical satire during his lifetime because he did not want it to jeopardize his reputation (he did let people perform “The Swan”—Le Cygne).  You don’t need to have any musical background to enjoy this work, but the more you know about 19th-century music the funnier it is, since he throws in lots of quotations from famous works, including his own.
• Symphony No. 3 in c minor (Organ Symphony)*
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor*
• Piano Concerto No. 3 (especially the Andante)
• Piano Concerto No. 4 in c minor
• Violin Concerto No. 3 in b minor*
• Cello Concerto No. 1 in a minor, Op. 33
• Suite Algérienne
• Marche héroïque
• Africa (w/solo piano)
• Tarantella (w/flute and clarinet)
• Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Op. 28, for solo violin and orchestra
• Havanaise, Op. 83, for solo violin and orchestra

Chamber

• Violin Sonata No. 1
• Cello Sonata No. 1
• Piano Quartet Op. 41
• Septet

Keyboard

• Fantasia for Organ in Eb
• Variations for Two Pianos on a Theme of Beethoven Op. 35
• 3 Preludes and Fugues for Organ, op. 99
• Etudes, Opp. 52, 111, 135
• 7 Improvisations, Op. 150

Choral

• Oratorio de Noël
• Le Déluge (with a supposedly famous violin solo)
• The Promised Land (for the 1913 Three Choirs Festival, the first time they commissioned a work from France in 180 years)
• Messe, Op. 4
• Requiem, Op. 54
• Calme des nuits, Op. 68 #1
• Ave Verum in Eb
• Psaume XVIII
• La Lyre et la harpe, Op. 57
• Chanson de grand-père, Op. 53 #1
• Les Fleurs et les arbres, Op. 68 #2
• Les Marins de Kermor, Op. 71 #1
• Des Pas dans l’allée, Op. 141 #1
• Les Soldats de Gédéon
• Les Titans

Song

• Le Pas d’armes du roi Jean

* One of Saint Saëns’s most popular works

December 2025