The Simple Beauty of The Swan by Saint-Saens

In 1886, French composer (and organist/pianist/conductor) Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) composed and premiered his fun and humorous chamber work The Carnival of the Animals. Each of the 14 movements represents an animal, and when the movements are put together the work is a parade of color, sound, and images. One of the most famous movements of this work is The Swan.

The Swan

History

Originally, Saint-Saëns composed The Swan for solo cello accompanied by two pianos. (It has since been arranged many times, including for cello and one piano as seen in the video above.) And because he had a reputation for being a serious composer, this particular movement was the only selection from The Carnival of the Animals that Saint-Saëns would allow to be played in public during his life. He thought the other movements were too lighthearted and would damage his image.

Since then, The Swan has been featured in many films and on countless soundtracks, and it even inspired a ballet – The Dying Swan, choreographed by Michel Fokine at the request of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova in 1905 (after this poem by Tennyson [1809-1892]). Watch it here:

Musical Analysis

Written in 6/4 time and marked Andantino Grazioso (which means slowly and gracefully), The Swan layers shimmering arpeggios underneath a song-like melody to portray the legend of the “swan song”: a popular Ancient Greek and Roman belief that the swan, the most beautiful of all animals, remained silent until its final moments of life, when it would sing the most beautiful of all songs.

And the melody certainly captures that feeling of beauty and longing. The theme in the cello opens with a falling 3-note motif that appears throughout the melody (circled in blue below). This downward descent followed by the soft climb of a scale mimics the swan’s graceful cry:

The harmonies are also fairly simple. The piece is centered in G Major, with minor chords appearing (such as A minor and B minor) to add nostalgia and sadness.

Of course, there are other interesting and beautiful chords that appear, like the F#M chord leading into B minor that then uses the D in the cello to transition back to G Major (0:40-0:59 in Yo-Yo Ma’s video):

And then there’s the abrupt cadence into F Major after a DM chord made us think we were headed back to GM:

Not to mention the cool part where Saint-Saëns moves from a DM chord to an Am chord (1:27-1:27 in the video), which is unexpected and beautiful:

The main theme repeats in the second half (1:46), developing and crescendoing into Am before slowly dying away, transitioning from Em to GM:

An Electronic Arrangement

Because of the expressive nature of The Swan, I wanted to capture and rearrange some of the beauty in my own music. So I took the main melodic theme from Saint-Saëns’ version and made it my own:

I took the harmonies in my version of The Swan from another of Saint-Saëns’ movements from The Carnival of the Animals called The Cuckoo in the Heart of the Woods. This extremely evocative piece has the clarinet standing backstage, giving the eerie sensation of a hidden bird singing through the trees:

The main harmonies I used from The Cuckoo were G#M, C#m, and F#m, resulting in a chorale-like atmosphere. Also, notice how the pianos play pp while the clarinet calls at f:

It’s amazing how beautiful and expressive The Carnival of the Animals truly is. Each piece paints a distinct image of nature, inviting imagination and creativity. It’s no wonder The Swan still stands today as one of classical music’s most well-known pieces.