Is Carnival Of The Animals In Harry Potter

The Funfair of the Animals: a guide to Saint-Saëns' humorous musical masterpiece

24 February 2022, 18:x | Updated: 24 February 2022, 21:22

Saint-Saens – Carnival of the Animals. Picture: Getty

Lions, swans, donkeys and… pianists? Here are all 14 movements of The Carnival of the Animals, and what they're about.

The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns took himself quite seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he banned one of his best-known pieces from being performed in public until later on he had died, in instance it damaged his reputation every bit a composer of "serious" music.

Thankfully, the wishes set out in his will were granted, and The Carnival of the Animals was published in 1922, a year after his death, and received its public world premiere on 25 February that yr.

The Carnival of the Animals is a comedic musical suite, comprised of iv brusque movements, that was written for a bit of lite relief after the composer returned from a fairly disastrous concert tour.

Originally written in 1886, the piece is now one of the works Saint-Saëns is best remembered for, and has provided a staple for the cello repertoire as well as inspiration for John Williams' score to the Harry Potter film franchise.

Here are each of the fourteen movements in club, their titles, and what they're all about.

Introduction and Royal March of the Lion

A assuming and stately introduction, fit for the rex of the jungle. Piano tremolos with dark and brooding strings open the introduction earlier a dramatic piano glissando heralds the arrival of the roaring ruler.

Enter: the lion. A regal major chord fanfare rings out from the two pianos, before spousal relationship strings play out the big cat's theme, ornamented by marching piano triplets and loftier trills.

Read more: Scout the great composer Saint-Saëns play one of his own compositions in this very rare footage
Hens and Roosters

Persistent pecking is immediately brought to heed when the piano and violins brainstorm their incessant staccato quavers, interrupted past irregular chirrups.

The two pianos laissez passer between them a parody of the rooster's 'cock-a-putter-doo', and stretched out scratchy string glissandos mimic the cooing and braying of the hens.
Wild Donkeys (Swift Animals)

Saint-Saëns portrays the skittishness of wild donkeys with a hurricane of racing semiquavers, played in octaves past two pianos.

The flighty creatures are gone almost every bit rapidly equally they arrived, as the whole motility only lasts around 30 seconds.
Tortoises

Ah, to be a slow-moving tortoise lazing around in the afternoon sun. Saint-Saëns was really having a laugh when he wrote this ane.

Over pulsing piano chords, in a triplet rhythm, a string quartet plus double bass plays an agonisingly slow rendition of Jacques Offenbach's Tin-Can from his opera Orpheus in the Underworld. Well played, Camille, well played.
The Elephant

Saint-Saëns clearly felt as if he hadn't ridiculed the creature kingdom plenty, as his scornful gaze next fell on the poor elephant.

In a duet between the double bass and the piano, the Carnival'southward elephant is cruelly taunted into dancing past a heavily satirical waltz. Famously not known for being light on their toes, Saint-Saëns characterises the elephant in a juxtaposition of low-cal piano notes and staccato melodies with the deep, weighty tones of the double bass.

At that place are more thinly veiled musical jokes here besides, as Saint-Saëns quotes melodies from Felix Mendelssohn's sprightly 'Scherzo' from A Midsummer Night's Dream equally well as 'Dance of the Sylphs' from Berlioz'south The Damnation of Faust, both originally written for high-pitched instruments with lite tones.
Kangaroos

The kangaroo isn't often represented in Western classical music, and it's hard to imagine any composer capturing their bounding energy quite likewise as Saint-Saëns did.

Two pianos laissez passer between them ii melodies: a sprightly staccato scale, complete with grace notes, that gets louder and faster as information technology rises and softer and slower as it falls.
Aquarium

From the Australian desert to the depths of the sea, Saint-Saens' Aquarium effortlessly captures the beauty and wonder of the underwater globe.

The twinkling high notes of the piano and drinking glass harmonica, the pure and open tone of the flute, and the shimmery mystical audio of muted strings all come together to wash over the listener in a stream of swirling notes.
Characters with Long Ears

Enough with this serious music malarkey, idea Saint-Saëns, and later on that brief but cute watery interlude, he returned to his musical jokes. Although the title is a little cryptic, many believe it to be a taunt at music critics, comparing them to braying donkeys.

A duet between 2 violins, they alternate between loftier notes at the very top of the musical instrument's range and sliding notes towards the bottom of the register, mimicking the animal'due south signature "hee-haw".
The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods

Two pianos play steady, soft quaver chords, replicating the calm, vast area of the wood.

A single offstage clarinet interjects occasionally with a ii-note calling card, mimicking the weep of the cuckoo.
Aviary

Quietly buzzing tremolos on violins and viola prepare the scene for this movement, a flurry of airborne activeness as the flute takes to the skies in a cyclone of notes.

With a melody that spans about the unabridged range of the musical instrument, the flute swoops and dives in relentless runs of demi-semi-quavers as two pianos bring together the chorus of the skies with intermittent chirrups and trills.
Pianists

Saint-Saëns wasn't satisfied with only poking fun at the brute kingdom and takes a jibe at pianists. Ooh, burn.

This must have been more a trivial natural language-in-cheek, every bit Saint-Saëns was a pianist himself. This movement is merely similar listening to simple pianoforte finger exercises, and on the original score, the editor even specified that the two performers "should imitate the hesitant style and clumsiness of a beginner". In some performances, the pianists even deliberately move out of sync with one another.
Fossils

As all skillful things come to an cease, so do animals become fossils. In Leonard Bernstein'southward iconic narration of The Carnival of the Animals recorded with the New York Philharmonic he pointed out the joke, which is that all the pieces quoted in this motion were the 'fossils' of Saint-Saëns' fourth dimension.

Beginning with a bit of cocky-deprecation, the movement opens with a os-rattling xylophone melody that quotes Saint-Saëns' own work, Danse Macabre, written just over 10 years earlier, before moving on to poke fun at French nursery rhymes, including Twinkle Twinkle Niggling Star and 'Au clair de la lune', besides as an extract from Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville. The click-clack of the xylophone is also joined by a clarinet, two pianos, a string quartet and double bass.

Read more: Hear Saint-Säens' Danse Macabre played on electrical guitar
The Swan

Perhaps the nearly famous of the 14 movements and certainly the nearly graceful, Saint-Saëns couldn't stay abroad from writing beautiful melodies for likewise long.

Two pianos evoke the rippling flow of a trunk of water, over which glides the soaring and elegant swan. Fifty-fifty Saint-Saëns himself could recognise the brilliance of this work, and it was the merely function of The Carnival of the Animals that he permitted to exist published during his lifetime.
Finale

Saint-Saëns' dazzling finale sees all xi performers come together for the get-go fourth dimension in the entire piece. It opens with the same piano trills as in the introduction and is soon fleshed out by the piccolo, clarinet, glass harmonica and xylophone.

The movement cycles rapidly through the animals that take appeared before with spirited interjections from the lions, hens and kangaroos, before the donkey has the last laugh with 6 "hee-haws" that bring the piece to a close.