Camille Saint-Saens, born in Paris in 1835, lived into the 20th century, dying in 1921 in Algiers. He was a child prodigy displaying perfect pitch at age 2 and made his concert debut at age 5 accompanying a violinist on the piano performing a Beethoven violin sonata. His best known compositions are Carnival of the Animals and Danse Macbre, written as symphonic poems, a musical genre he is credited with inventing. Apparently, he composed Carnival…as a joke and then became concerned it would ruin his reputation.  The only movement he allowed to be performed was ‘The Swan’ which was interpreted by famed Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, thousands of times.  Three interesting footnotes to his successful musical career: 1.) Saint-Saens was conversant in botany, geology, butterflies, and math and published several papers on acoustics.  2.) He was the first famous composer to write a film score (“The Assassination of the Duke of Guise”, and 18 minute silent movie made in 1908)  3.) He was the earliest born pianist to make a recording of his work.

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Beethoven
Copland
Debussy
Mendelssohn
Offenbach
Paganini
Puccini
Saint-Saens
Stravinsky