contents - let's play music

1Let’s Play Kids Music

Contents– 1 –

Introduction

– 1 –

Resources ordered by Movement

Movement I: Introduction and the Royal March of the Lion (Introduction et marche royale du lion)

Movement II: Hens & Roosters (Poules et coques)

Movement III: Wild Donkeys - Swift Animals (Hémione - animaux véloces)

Movement IV: Tortoises (Tortues)

Movement V: The Elephant (L’Éléphant)

Movement VI: Kangaroos (Kangourous)

Movement VII: Aquarium

Movement VIII: Donkey: Persons with Long Ears (Personnages à longues oreilles)

Movement IX: The Cuckoo (Le Coucou au fond des bois)

Movement X: Aviary (Volière)

Movement XI: Pianists (Pianistes)

Movement XII: Fossils (Fossiles)

Movement XIII: The Swan (Le cynge)

Movement XIV: Finale

Additional resources

2© Let’s Play Kids Music

Contents– 3 –

Introduction

Resources ordered by Movement

– 6 – I: Introduction and the Royal March of the Lion

(Introduction et marche royale du lion)

– 11 – II: Hens & Roosters (Poules et coques)

– 17 – III: Wild Donkeys - Swift Animals (Hémione - animaux véloces)

– 22 – IV: Tortoises (Tortues)

– 27 – V: The Elephant (L’Éléphant)

– 31 – VI: Kangaroos (Kangourous)

– 35 – VII: Aquarium

– 41 – VIII: Donkey: Persons with Long Ears

(Personnages à longues oreilles)

– 46 – IX: The Cuckoo (Le Coucou au fond des bois)

– 51 – X: Aviary (Volière)

– 56 – XI: Pianists (Pianistes)

– 59 – XII: Fossils (Fossiles)

– 63 – XIII: The Swan (Le cynge)

– 68 – XIV: Finale

– 73 – Additional resources


IntroductionCamille Saint-Saëns - The Composer Saint-Saëns was born in Paris in 1835 and was a prolific composer over his long life. With over 300 works to his name, his most famous piece is the opera Samson & Delilah and he went on to be the first major composer to write music for films.

Creating ‘The Carnival’ Saint-Saëns was fascinated by natural history and he also had a great sense of humour and fun. So he composed The Carnival of the Animals to play together with his friends at the 1886 Mardi Gras celebrations. He described these fourteen musical animal sketches as ‘a grand zoological fantasy’.

These clever, musical characterisations gave him the perfect opportunity to indulge his mischievous sense of humour and his colourful imagination in equal measure. The fourteen short movements were originally scored for just eleven performers: two pianos and chamber orchestra including glass harmonica or glockenspiel and xylophone.

Over time it has been arranged for everything from two pianos and full orchestra to just a piano duet. There is a rich use of imagery and imitation through musical figuration and orchestral colours, which still comes through even in the piano-only version.

Enjoying the Humour There is great comedy in many of the movements. Saint-Saëns plays with the music of his composer friends, such as in the Tortoise’s Can Can (which was inspired by Offenbach’s Orpheus and the Underworld) and the Elephant’s Waltz (inspired by The Dance of the Sylphs from Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust). However, he was not particularly proud of this work and only ever allowed it to be performed twice in his own lifetime (once to the public and once privately for his good friend Franz Liszt.) This is probably because he was concerned that it’s light and humorous nature might hurt his reputation as a serious composer.

The 14 Animal Vignettes – a brief overview In the first movement, the lion marches in majestically with fierce roars in the piano, telling everyone who’s the boss! Then come along the hens and rooster with their fussy clucking and pecking - listen out for clarinet and piano cock-a-doodle-dooing, and the violin clucking, sliding from note to note.

Next the wild donkeys gallop through in a flash, before the tortoises dance ironically slowly to Offenbach’s famous can-can theme. A huge elephant is portrayed waltzing heavily to a lumbering, deep


double bass theme. Then with some deft leaping on the piano come the sprightly, hopping kangaroos, who pause to graze a little before springing off into the distance.

In ‘The Aquarium’ a gentle, mysterious and liquid rippling melody is played on the flute and violins accompanied by the distinctive glockenspiel. This is contrasted by descending patterns on the piano which sound just like water falling.

Suddenly there’s a braying donkey portrayed with alarming realism by the sliding string figures in the squeaky squawking violins! Next a sweet clarinet imitates a cuckoo which leads our footsteps (depicted by piano) mysteriously deeper and deeper into the woods in the hope that we catch a glimpse of the elusively shy bird. This unfolds into a whole aviary of birds - rapid keyboard patterns underpin the flute and piccolo which are the perfect delicate choice to portray the fluttering and trilling of the birds in the canopy of trees above.

Now, in a short departure from the animal imagery, Saint-Saëns pokes fun at himself and other musicians with two pianos practicing their scales with increasing speed and furious determination including the intentional mistakes (yet another musical joke!) To follow this, Saint-Saëns then pays homage to animals from prehistoric times with a reference to his own 1874 work, Danse Macabre. Then, the brittle rattle of the xylophone is perfect to describe the dancing dinosaur skeletons jigging jauntily in ‘The Fossils’.

The last animal to glide by is a Swan with her sublime and dolorous melody expressed with superb melancholy on the cello. The finale is a brilliant conclusion. All of the animals return for a final bow in the exuberant last movement, and if you listen carefully you can hear their individual themes coming together.

Musical Legacy Unbelievably, only ‘The Swan’ was actually published during Saint-Saën’s lifetime. Today, this is one of the most famous melodies for the cello. It is a shame that he never knew the huge popularity that The Carnival of the Animals as a whole would go on to achieve. The popularity is as such, that some of the themes are likely to already be familiar to children. One of the loveliest is undoubtedly ‘The Aquarium’ and it has been featured in films like Babe, Charlotte’s Web and even Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. To this day, ‘The Swan’ remains a huge favourite in the cello repertoire.

Creative Inspiration Children of all ages will love this colourful work and it is a wonderful way to encourage kids to really listen and engage with classical music. Younger ones naturally respond through imaginative movement and role play, listening first and then identifying and mimicking the animals. But with older children the Carnival of the Animals is excellent for teaching all sorts of musical concepts. These vibrant and hugely contrasting short movements are perfect for introducing tempo and dynamics and illustrating the use of simple musical form.


As their musical awareness grows, children will learn to identify the various instruments and musical effects that Saint-Saëns uses to illustrate each animal. They start to hear and recognise the themes borrowed from his composer friends and enjoy the irony, and the humour. Older children will draw a wealth of creative inspiration and can even try improvising and composing their own animal inspired pieces.

How to use this resource The activities included with this pack will help children to learn to connect with the music and be a launching pad for their own creative responses. Please note that you will need access to YouTube to listen to the music and make full use of the included links in the additional resources section.

This pack includes:

Full teaching notes for each of the movements - step by step instructions on how to introduce the movements to the children, relevant highlights to look out for each movements, with rhythm and movement activities.

Listening Maps - to give children a visual connection with the music as they listen. These listening maps highlight all of the important elements and nuances of the music, while guiding the listener along the melodic contour. I have found these visual aids incredibly useful for helping children to connect with the music.

Poems for each movement - these are to encourage kids to explore new and descriptive language

Worksheets & colouring sheets - colouring worksheets that incorporate key music theory such as note recognition and note names.

As a supplementary resource, I’d also really recommend taking a look at the YouTube animations included in the additional resources section at the end of the book. I have found them very inspiring in the course of creating these resources, and know that they appeal to younger viewers just as much!

But for me, nothing beats the simplicity of sitting quietly colouring, while listening, absorbing, and really thinking about the sounds that we can hear.


The LionTEACHING NOTES


The LionLISTENING MAP


The LionPOEM


The LionSTICK PUPPET


The LionCOLOURING SHEET


Hens & RoosterTEACHING NOTES


Hens & RoosterXXXListening map


Hens & RoosterPOEM

WORKSHEET


Hens & Rooster


Hens & Rooster

Listen for the clucking in the violins & the cock-a-doodles

in the clarinet & piano

COLOURING SHEET


Wild DonkeysTeaching notes


Wild DonkeysLISTENING MAP


Wild DonkeysPOEM


Wild DonkeysSTICK PUPPET


Wild DonkeysCOLOURING SHEET


TortoisesTEACHING NOTES


TortoisesPOEM


TortoisesFINGER PUPPET


TortoisesCOLOURING SHEET


The ElephantTEACHING NOTES


ElephantListening map


The ElephantPOEM


The ElephantCOLOURING SHEET


KangaroosTEACHING NOTES


KangaroosListening map


KangaroosPOEM


KangaroosSTICK PUPPET


AquariumTeaching notes


AquariumListening map PAGE 1


AquariumLISTENING MAP PAGE 2


AquariumPOEM


AquariumCOlouring Sheet


Donkey: Persons with Long Ears

Listening map

Personages with long ears



Listening map



Listening map



COLOURING SHEET


CuckooTEACHING NOTES


CuckooListening Map

CuckooPOEM



CuckooworkSheet


TEACHING NOTESAviary


AviaryLISTENING MAP


AviaryPOEM


Aviary


The PianistsTEACHING NOTES


The PianistsLISTENING MAP


The PianistsPOEM


The FossilsTEACHING NOTES


The FossilsLISTENING MAP


The FossilsPOEM


The FossilsCOLOURING SHEET


The Swanteaching notes


The SwanLISTENING MAP


The SwanPOEM


The SwanCOLOURING SHEETS


F inaleTEACHING NOTES


F inaleLISTENING MAP


F inalePOEM


F inaleCOLOURING SHEET


Let’s PlayXXX


ReferencesMore Carnival of the Animals

resources to enjoy

General Carnival of the Animals resources

Full track - There are lots of versions of Carnival of the Animals available on YouTube but this is the one I use

youtube.com/watch?v=1L993HNAa8M&t=865s

A list of suggested stories to read before listening to each movement popesmusicplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/carnival-of-animals.html

Shadow puppet show for whole piece youtube.com/watch?v=dX9HoJ2nA_E

Animations for specific movements

‘Kangaroos’ animation https://youtu.be/j0NvRzCPKzc

‘Tortoises’ animation https://youtu.be/VVM73IDcn3o

‘Aquarium’ animation 1) https://youtu.be/wzL8seKE-FA 2) https://youtu.be/I5yvOG1aztg 3) https://youtu.be/a4lmvXYRfa4

‘Fossils’ combination of vintage cartoon with orchestra https://youtu.be/vGI-hYVslPU

‘The Swan’ cello solo with contemporary ballet https://youtu.be/C9jghLeYufQ

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