ABSTRACT
Camille Saint-Saëns (b. Paris, October 9, 1835; d. Algiers, December 16, 1921), like Claudio Monteverdi, George Frederic Handel, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Richard Strauss, is a composer whose music and career stand in two different historical periods. While each was a master of the period of his birth, each also introduced new and imaginative ideas, techniques, and sounds to the established musical vocabulary of his time. As important as each of these composers is in the chain of European art music, Saint-Saëns often appears to be standing in the shadows. Beginning only eight years after the death of Beethoven and ending after World War I, his life spanned a period of extreme social, industrial, and musical change. Although perhaps not a great innovator as were these other composers, Saint-Saëns nevertheless was fundamental in establishing an identifiable French musical style in the nineteenth century based upon clarity, concision, balance, and order. He, like Stravinsky, was admittedly an eclectic creator who could synthesize various musical styles into his own without creating slavish imitations. Examples of this are found in the symphonic poems, operas such as Samson et Dalila and Henry VIII, and in his ability to incorporate authentic Middle Eastern musical elements in works such as Samson and the Suite algérienne.
