Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921) was a
French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the
Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction
and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto
(1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre
(1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third
Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony
(1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).
Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy; he made his concert
debut ...(+)
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921) was a
French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the
Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction
and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto
(1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre
(1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third
Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony
(1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).
Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy; he made his concert
debut at the age of ten. After studying at the Paris
Conservatoire he followed a conventional career as a
church organist, first at Saint-Merri, Paris and, from
1858, La Madeleine, the official church of the French
Empire. After leaving the post twenty years later, he
was a successful freelance pianist and composer, in
demand in Europe and the Americas.
As a young man, Saint-Saëns was enthusiastic for the
most modern music of the day, particularly that of
Schumann, Liszt and Wagner, although his own
compositions were generally within a conventional
classical tradition. He was a scholar of musical
history, and remained committed to the structures
worked out by earlier French composers. This brought
him into conflict in his later years with composers of
the impressionist and dodecaphonic schools of music;
although there were neoclassical elements in his music,
foreshadowing works by Stravinsky and Les Six, he was
often regarded as a reactionary in the decades around
the time of his death.
Le timbre d'argent (The Silver Bell) is an opéra
fantastique in four acts by composer Camille
Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and
Michel Carré. Although completed in 1865, the opera
did not receive its premiere performance until 23
February 1877, when it was presented by Albert
Vizentini's Théâtre National Lyrique at the Théâtre
de la Gaîté in Paris. It includes the well-known aria
"Le bonheur est chose légère."
From the lyrics: "Happiness is a light thing, fleeting,
you think to attain it, you pursue it; you pursue it,
it flies away! Alas! you want a happiness different
from ours; your ardent desires demand pleasures. God
preserve you from troubles, and tears that can darken
the course of beautiful days. Happiness... If ever your
heart regrets this shelter which today you abandon,
Return! Of all the troubles of your soul I claim for
the sake of our faithful friendship, half!
Happiness..."
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns
).
Although originally scored for Voice & Piano, I created
this Arrangement of "Le bonheur est chose légère"
(Happiness is a Light thing) from "Le Timbre d'Argent,
drame lyrique" for Oboe & Piano.
