MAESTRO CLASSICS™

Music by
Camille Saint-Saëns
Verses by
Ogden Nash

Illustrations by
Anne Wilsdorf

London Philharmonic
Orchestra
Stephen Simon, Conductor
Yadu, Narrator

1
A Classic with Orchestra & Narrator
Welcome to
Stories
in Music™
The Maestro Classics™ award-winning
series of great music with narrated
stories is a musical experience designed
to expand listening horizons, develop
listening skills, accumulate musical
memories, and encourage adults and
children to listen to music together.
The accompanying educational tracks include
historical information, the conductor speaking about
the music, and guest artists who transform themes
into entertaining musical styles.
Visit www.MaestroClassics.com for additional educational materials.
S aint-Saëns was a great
and prolific French
composer. He was born
in 1835, only eight years after the
death of Beethoven, and died in
1921, when people were listening
to Duke Ellington and Louis
Armstrong. Because he lived so
long, he wrote in many different
musical styles. Musicians often say
that if they cannot identify a work,
it is probably by Saint-Saëns!
Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy.
He was playing Beethoven in
public at the age of 6, and
by 11 he was playing in
Paris concert halls. He
studied composition
and organ at
the Paris
Conservatory, and by the age of
22 was appointed chief organist at
La Madeleine, one of Paris’s most
famous churches. For years, people
came to this church just to hear
him play.
Saint-Saëns knew all of the
famous musicians of his day
and was highly respected as a
composer, conductor, pianist,
and organist. But he was also an
intellectual who seriously studied
biology, astronomy, and physics.
In 1886, Saint-Saëns composed solo, “The Swan.”
Carnival of the Animals for a Mardi Saint-Saëns died in 1921 at the age of 86.
Gras party. It must have delighted Carnival of the Animals was published, but had
all those in attendance, but Saint- no narration. In 1951 when the conductor André
Saëns, wanting to preserve his Kostelanetz realized that no one was smiling during
serious musical reputation, would his performance of Carnival of the Animals, he
not grant permission for it to be commissioned the American poet Ogden Nash
published or performed in public to write humorous verses for a narrator. This
until after his death. The only collaboration was so successful that the music and
exception was the beautiful cello verses have been performed together ever since.
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Verses by Ogden Nash
Camille Saint-Saëns was wracked with pains
When people addressed him as “Saint Sains.”
He held the human race to blame
Because it could not pronounce his name.
So he turned with metronome and fife
To glorify other forms of life.
Be quiet, please, for here begins
His salute to feathers, furs, and fins.
The Lion
The lion is the king of beasts
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as “Your Highoness.”
There are those who admire that roar of his
In the African jungles and veldts;
But I think wherever the Lion is
I’d rather be somewhere else.
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 The Rooster
The rooster is a roistering hoodlum.
His battle cry is cock-a-doodleum.
Hands in pockets, cap over eye,
He whistles at pullets passing by.
The Wild Donkeys
Have you ever harked to the jackass wild
Which scientists call the onager?
It sounds like the laugh of a mischievous child,
Or a hepcat on a harmoniger.
But do not sneer at the jackass wild;
There is method in his hee-haw;
For with maidenly blush, and accent mild,
The jenny-ass answers – Shee-haw!

The Tortoise
Come, crown my brow with leaves of myrtle!
I know the tortoise is a turtle.
Come, carve my name in stone immortle! Elephants
I know the turtoise is a tortle. Elephants are useful friends,
I know, to my profound despair, Equipped with handles at both ends.
I bet on one to beat a hare. They have a wrinkled, mothproof hide;
I also know I’m now a pauper Their teeth are upside-down, outside.
Because of its tortley, turtley torpor. If you think the elephant
preposterous,
You’ve probably never seen a
rhinosterous.

4
The Kangaroo I could not eat a kangaroo,
The kangaroo can jump incredible; But many fine Australians do.
He has to jump because he’s edible. Those with cookbooks as well
as boomerangs
Prefer him in tasty kangaroo
meringues.
Fish
Some fish are minnows, some are whales.
People like dimples, fish like scales.
Some fish are slim, and some are round.
Cuckoos They don’t get cold, they don’t get drowned.
Cuckoos lead bohemian lives; But every fishwife is jealous for her fish
They fail as husbands and as wives. What we call mermaids, and they call merfish.
Therefore, they cynically disparage
Everybody else’s marriage.

Birds
Puccini was Latin, and Wagner Teutonic;
And birds are incurably philharmonic.
Suburban yards and rural vistas
Are filled with avian Andrews sisters.
The skylark sings a roundelay;
The crow sings ”The Road to Mandalay.”
The nightingale sings a lullaby;
The seagull sings a gullaby.
That’s what shepherds listened to in Arcadia,
Mules Before somebody invented the radia.
In the world of mules,
There are no rules.
5
 The Fossils
At midnight, in the museum hall,
The fossils gathered for a ball.
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones.
A rolling, rattling, carefree circus
Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas.
Pterodactyls and brontosauruses,

Pianists
Some claim that pianists are human,
And quote the case of Mr. Truman*. Sang ghostly, prehistoric choruses.
Saint-Saëns, upon the other hand, Amid the mastodonic wassail,
Considered them a scurvy band. I caught the eye of one small fossil.
Ape-like they are, he said, and simian, “Cheer up, sad world,” he said and winked,
Instead of normal men and womian. “It’s kind of fun to be extinct.”

The Swan
The swan can swim while sitting down.
For pure conceit she takes the crown.
She looks in the mirror over and over, Finale
And claims never to have heard of Pavlova. Now we’ve reached the Grand Finale: Animale Carnivale.
Noises new to sea and land
Issue from the skillful band.
All the strings contort their
features
Imitating crawly creatures.
All the brasses look like
mumps In outdoing Barnum and Bailey,
From blowing umpah, and Ringling,
umpah umps. Saint-Saëns has done a miraculous
thingling!
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 3. Mister Moon shine brightly!
My good friend, Pierrot.
May I have your pen to
Write a quick, small note.
Oops! My candle just went out,
What am I to do?
Please, oh please, Pierrot,
Who will help but you?

4. Mister Moon shine brightly!

It is me, Pierrot.
I don’t have a pen and
I’m asleep, you know.
Go and see the neighbor,
She’s awake, I think.
She may have a candle
And perhaps some ink.

Au Clair de la Lune
“By the Light of the Moon” Jean-Baptiste
Arr. Stephen
Lully
Jean-Baptiste
Simon
Arr. Stephen
Lully
Simon
English verses byEnglish
Bonnieverses byWard Simon
Bonnie Ward Simon

& b 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙
1. Au clair de la lu - ne, Mon a - mi Pier -rot. Prê - te moi ta plu - me, Pour é - crire un mot.
2. Au clair de la lu - ne, Pier -rot ré -pon - dit: «Je n'ai pas de plu - me, Je suis dans mon lit.

&b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙
Ma chan -delle est mor - te, Je n'ai plus de feu. Ou - vre moi ta por - te, Pour l'a-mour de Dieu.
Va chez la voi - si - ne, Je crois qu'elle y est. Car dans sa cui- si - ne, On bat le bri - quet.» 7
 Our Players
Stephen Simon | Stephen Simon is a specialist Lions roar, elephants dance, roosters
in the music of Handel. He was director of the Handel whistle, and fossils clatter. A brilliant new
Festival at Carnegie Hall, the Handel Festival at the child-friendly recording with the London
Kennedy Center, and won a Grammy nomination for
Philharmonic Orchestra that will delight
his recording of Handel’s Solomon. He was the music
director of the Washington Chamber Orchestra for
children and adults alike. Enjoy the music, learn
25 years and has recorded for Sony, RCA, Newport about the composer, sing a song. One hour+ of musical fun.
Classics, and Musical Heritage. He is the music director
of Maestro Classics and of the Simon Sinfonietta in Carnival of the Animals
Falmouth, MA and L’Orchestre des Portes Rouges in
Music by Camille Saint-Saëns • Verses by Ogden Nash
New York City.
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Yadu | Yadu, a.k.a. Dr. Konrad Czynski, was the 1. Carnival of the Animals 27:06
original narrator for the Stories in Music series at the For Narrator and Orchestra
Kennedy Center. He is a very popular professor of
2. About the Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns 5:36
humanities at Minnesota State University – Moorhead. Bonnie Ward Simon, Elucidator

3. “Au Clair de la Lune – Mister Moon Shine Brightly” 2:57

Bonnie Ward Simon | Bonnie Ward Simon is the Maestro Classics Trio • Rachel Barham, Soprano
creative director and executive producer of Maestro
4. About the Music 8:17
Classics and is the female voice on the CDs. She
Stephen Simon, Conductor
has degrees in music and music education, ancient
Chinese history and modern Japanese history. 5. Carnival of the Animals 21:39
MAESTRO CLASSICS™
Instrumental Version 888.540.2811
Alan Wonneberger, Producer
6. Prepare to Perform 1:06 Anne Wilsdorf, Illustrator
Bonnie Ward Simon ©2012 Simon & Simon, LLC
Made in USA

7. “Au Clair de la Lune” Sing-Along 2:57 www.MaestroClassics.com

Karen Johnson, Flute • E. Michael Richards, Clarinet
Kazuko Tanosaki, Piano

Total Playing Time 69:41

Donna Kwong, Piano Wendy Chen, Piano
®
Visit www.MaestroClassics.com for additional educational materials. 8