OCCIDENT ET ORIENT, OP. 25

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THIS WAS WRITTEN BY FRENCH COMPOSER CHARLES-CAMILLE SAINT SAENS IN 1869. HE WAS A PROLIFIC COMPOSER, WRITING OVER 300 WORKS INCLUDING 5 SYMPHONIES. PERFORMED BY THE 1982 TMEA ALL STATE SYMPHONIC BAND, FREDERICK C. EBBS CONDUCTOR (INDIANA UNIV.)

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Symphonic Band Performances

Contemporary band compositions, classical music arrangements, marches, jazz, symphonies, overtures. A collection from bands that I have played in throughout hi

Hello and welcome! "Symphonic Band Performances" is a compilation of recordings from several high school and college bands that I played in including the TMEA (Texas) All State Band, the TMEA Region X All Region Band, the Interlochen Arts Academy National Music Camp, the Cal Poly Tech Band, San Luis Obispo, the USAF Golden West Band, and recordings from my h.s. band, Beaumont H.S. and a few band recordings that were passed down to me. Also included are various All State groups and college and university bands. I participated and played in the large majority of these recordings. There are no professional recordings here and every recording is Public Domain. Most are available for free download. Each song has been converted from the original analog or digital source and edited with Audacity or Dak software. In the majority of these recordings, I play the tenor sax or alto sax, b flat or e flat clarinet, or directing. I was drum major for 2 years in high school, I have a BA from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where I studied music ed, composition and theory. I had about 500 more recordings I was planning to digitize and upload, but this past Nov. 20th, my home was completely destroyed by fire, and all the contents, including all my music and instruments. So, this is it. Please feel free to post a comment here or on my member page. If you like, please become a fan by clicking "I'm a fan" below.

Song Info

Genre

Classical • Symphonic

Charts

Peak #1,386

Peak in subgenre #29

Rights

public domain

Uploaded

April 05, 2009

Track Files

MP3

MP3 11.2 MB • 192 kbps • 8:09

Story behind the song

Charles-Camille Saint-Sa?ns early start and his long life provided him with time to write hundreds of compositions; during his career, he wrote many dramatic works, including four symphonic poems, and thirteen operas, of which Samson et Dalila and the symphonic poem Danse Macabre are among his most famous. In all, he composed over 300 works and was the first major composer to write music specifically for the cinema, for Henri Lavedan's film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (Op. 128, 1908).[2]

Saint-Sa?ns wrote five symphonies, although only three of these are numbered. He withdrew the first, written for a Mozartian-scale orchestra, and the third, a competition piece. His symphonies are a significant contribution to the genre during a period when the French symphonic tradition was otherwise in decline. Saint-Sa?ns also contributed voluminously to the French concertante literature; he wrote five piano concertos, three violin concertos, two cello concertos, and about twenty smaller concertante works for soloist and orchestra, including a colorfully orchestrated piano fantasy, Africa; the Havanaise and the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso for violin and orchestra; and the Morceau de Concert for harp and orchestra. Of the concertos, the Second Piano concerto is one of the most popular of virtuoso piano concertos, and the Third Violin Concerto and First Cello Concerto also remain popular.

In 1886 he wrote his final symphony, the Symphony No. 3, avec orgue (with organ), one of his best-known works. The motif of the third became the inspiration for the 1978 song If I Had Words by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley. Aided by the monumental symphonic organs built in France by Aristide Cavaill?-Coll, at that time the world's foremost organ builder, this work demonstrates the spirit of "gigantism" and the confidence of France at the end of the 19th century, a period that also produced the Eiffel Tower, the Universal Exposition at Paris and the Belle ?poque. The confident Maestoso fourth movement perhaps reflects the confidence of Europe in its technology, its science, its "age of reason". He was frequently named as "the most German of all the French composers", perhaps due to his use of counterpoint.

In 1886, Saint-Sa?ns also completed Le Carnaval des Animaux, which was first performed privately on 9 March. In contrast with the work's later popularity, Saint-Sa?ns forbade complete performances of it shortly after its premi?re, allowing only one movement, Le Cygne (The Swan) for cello and two pianos, to be published in his lifetime. Carnival was written as a musical jest, and Saint-Sa?ns believed it would damage his reputation as a serious composer. In fact, since its posthumous publication, this work's imagination and musical brilliance have impressed listeners and critics.

Saint-Sa?ns also wrote six preludes and fugues for organ, three in Op. 99 and three in Op. 109, of which Op. 99, no. 3 in E flat major is most often performed.

A previously lost opera score "Helene" was composed by Saint-Sa?ns for the great Australian soprano, Dame Nellie Melba, in 1904. The score was rediscovered by a researcher in 2007 and was performed for the first time in the soprano's home city (Melbourne) during January 2008.[3]

One of Saint-Sa?ns' symphonic poems, Le Rouet d'Omphale, Op. 31, became famous to a new generation of listeners beginning in 1937 through its use of the ominous middle section of it as the theme to the long-running radio program, The Shadow.

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Comments 1

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troy66

Jul 16, 2013

Again, thank you. I was first chair trumpet in this band, on this performance, and I can't thank you enough for publishing it. I lost my album years ago, and hearing it for the first time in many years is very emotional for me.