Virtuoso. Derived of Latin and Italian origins, defined as; A person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit. A word that is only to describe the most skilled and accomplished musicians to date. A word that would describe the musician and composer: Camille Saint-Saëns, a notable maestro whose efforts inspired thousands, impacting France’s classical music setting. His many pieces were quintessentially French, having clarity and being intellectually profound. With his unique stylistic space in his compositions, he brought immense admiration and inspiration amongst fellow composers and destinations worldwide, bringing those who were in the classical world into the sphere of French Romanticism. Filled with drama on a historical and individual level, a heightened interest in national identity, and a general expansion or rejection of existing musical structures, his pieces were compelling to attract almost everyone who listened to his works. His music was enthralling, as well as irresistible to those who listened. His ability to impeccably weave unusual, foreign harmonies and melodic lines into ingrained musical formats, was simultaneously intriguing and delighting the listener’s ear. His use of colorful harmonies influenced the French Impressionist composers, overall increasing popularity toward the end of his life. Saint-Saëns left a distinguished and immense musical legacy in which his written five symphonies, five piano concertos, several operas (and operettas), incidental music, a wide breadth of chamber music, and numerous works for solo piano and solo organ brought the audience a unforgettable story, showing a willingness to experiment with a more progressive musical language and to abandon lyricism and charm for more profound expression. His ineradicable virtuosity brought society an unmistakable style of music that is relearned and recited to audiences to this date. His profound name is learned and is ranked amongst musical legends, even being named as “The closest France has come to producing another Mozart”. His endowment has brought the present time in the twenty-first century a name in the history textbooks for students to learn about, hopefully inspiring one to discover a passion in the powerful language. Although his legacy is a significant endeavor when talking about Saint-Saëns, we must focus on how he came to be in the first place.
On the ninth of October, eighteen thirty-five, he came into the world an as boring and insignificant child who couldn’t possibly imagine what awaited him in the years to come. After the devastating death of his father, his mother sought out for aid, specifically from his beloved aunt. Charlotte Masson, who introduced the fond instrument that would ultimately impact his life forever. The Piano. Being already an impeccable prodigy, Saint-Saëns had perfect pitch and began his studies as a pianist at only the young age of two years old. After his debut as a pianist, he embarked the task of composing music. His first composition, a little piece for the piano dated March 22, 1839, is now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (International Library of France). His precociousness was not limited to music, and when he was three years old, he had already begun to read and write. His first piano recital was dawned upon France at age five when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata. Although his aunt was of much help when he was learning the basics, it was clear he was craving more and became the pupil of Camille-Marie Stamaty, a former pupil of Friedrich Kalkbrenner. When he was ten years of age, Saint-Saëns gave his debut public recital at the Salle Ignaz Pleyel pianos, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat major (Köchel-Verzeichnis – K. 450), and various pieces by Händel, Kalkbrenner, Hummel, and Bach. Even in spite of the long concert, the audience was pleading for more, and as an encore he played thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas from memory, which sparked news all across the globe, making headlines in Boston and Massachusetts. In the late eighteen-forties Saint-Saëns began studying at the Paris Conservatory, learning more information on the composition and expanding his musical knowledge by learning how to play the organ. With his new profound knowledge, he won multiple prestigious awards. His reputation provided him with the introduction of Franz Liszt, who soon became one of his closest friends. At the age of sixteen, Saint-Saëns wrote his first symphony, which was soon performed in eighteen-fifty-three which astonished multiple critics and fellow composers. He left the Paris Conservatoire in eighteen-fifty-three and became a professional organist, performing is multiple churches. In eighteen fifty-seven he replaced Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wely’s position as an organist at Église de la Madeleine until eighteen seventy-seven. His weekly improvisations stunned the Parisian public and earned Liszt's 1866 observation that Saint-Saëns was the greatest organist in the world at the time. In spite of this, Saint-Saëns entered a teaching position an École Niedermeyer from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five, in which he taught André Messager and Gabriel Fauré. His teaching position caught the attention of fellow composers and musicians, such as Liszt, Gounod, Schumann, Berlioz, and Wagner, because of his contemporary music style. Although his talents in music were prevalent amongst society, it would become clear that he was a multifaceted intellectual who was gifted in subjects such as geology, archaeology, botany, lepidoptery, and mathematics. As his years continued on, he published philosophical works Problèmes et Mystères, which spoke of science and art replacing religion; Saint-Saëns's pessimistic and atheistic ideas foretoken Existentialism. Other literary achievements included Rimes familières, a volume of poetry, and La Crampe des écrivains, a successful farcical play. He was even a member Astronomical Society of France where he lectured and studied astronomy, even correlating his concerts to correspond with astronomical events. Although life was going well for him, he was conscripted into the National Guard to fight in the Franco-Prussian War in eighteen-seventy which left a large influence on his emotional and mental health. When eighteen-seventy-one arrived, he co-founded the Société Nationale de Musique in order to promote a new style French music. After the fall of the Paris Commune, the Society premiered works by members like Fauré, César Franck, Édouard Lalo, and Saint-Saëns himself, who served as the society's co-president. Through this, his influential figure continued to shape the future of French music through this society. During eighteen-seventy-five Saint-Saëns married nineteen year old Marie-Laure Truffot who gave birth to two children; André and Jean-François. In spite of this peaceful time, it would only be present for a short amount of time, for in a few years both of his children would perish. Three years after the death of his children, he would leave his wife, blaming her for the death of his children.