The repertoire for solo cello is vast, featuring many remarkable pieces of music that showcase the instrument’s sonic capabilities. From Johann Sebastian Bach to Alfred Schnittke, composers have utilized the cello to achieve the heights of musical expression. One piece, however, has always stuck out for its beauty and simplicity.
Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era. His work, “The Carnival of the Animals,” is a whimsical musical suite that uses instrumentation to represent different creatures. An elephant is portrayed by a plodding melody on the double bass, while dueling pianos elicit the hopping of kangaroos with jumping chords. The most prominent movement of the entire work is “Le cygne,” which translates to “The Swan.”
The cello feature is the only piece of music from “The Carnival” that Saint-Saëns allowed to be performed during his lifetime, as the rest of the suite was published in 1922 – a year after his death. “He thought the other movements were too silly and would make him seem like he wasn’t a ‘serious’ enough composer,” Interlochen Public Radio explains.
Over 100 years later, “The Swan” remains a touchstone and rite of passage for cellists of all ages for its emotional impact and technical requirements. It is written in 6/4 time with a tempo marking of “andantino grazioso,” meaning it should be slightly faster than a walking pace yet graceful.
It has a one-bar intro before starting its ternary, or ABA, form. The first A section has eight bars, followed by an eight-bar B section. The final A section has four bars before changing the motif. The music itself is representative of the beauty and elegance of a swan. Educator Cornelia Watkins prepared a fantastic teaching plan for the piece that examines the contour of the melody.
“The opening 2 bars of the melody literally depict the outline of a swan, and the contour creates a very elegant line,” Watkins writes. “The primarily descending melody is balanced by the upward glide of the second 2 measures. The B section begins by utilizing fragments of the descending melodic shape; again the 2nd pair of measures have more upward direction in shape. The suspension on the high B creates the peak of the melody, since the vast majority of the melody is created with continuous movement. The descent from the high B is extended by an extra bar, and then offers three more suspended melodic moments, the final one bringing the piece back to the G where it began, to float away, out of sight.”
“The Swan” is often performed by cello accompanied by solo piano, but today we’re watching a spellbinding performance by the Kanneh-Mason family.
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason is joined by his sisters, Jeneba and Isata, on pianos during the recording sessions for the family’s album, “The Carnival,” which features all seven Kanneh-Mason siblings on their respective instruments.
Sheku gracefully connects all the notes with powerful, legato bowing.
Follow along with the sheet music for “The Swan”:
