Septet by Saint-Saëns

Composers Datebook

Synopsis

Émile Lemoine was a French mathematician and passionate amateur musician who, in 1861, founded a members-only chamber music society he called “La Trompette,” or “The Trumpet,” a society that soon included some of the most famous musicians in Paris, including composer Camille Saint-Saëns. For years Lemoine begged Saint-Saëns to compose a chamber work for his society, asking only, not surprisingly, that it feature the trumpet.

Saint-Saëns eventually fulfilled Lemoine’s wish, composing a Septet for the unusual combination of trumpet, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, and piano, a work influenced somewhat by his love of 17th century French music and dances.

The Septet was successfully premiered at a La Trompette series concert on today’s date in 1880 and published the next year. Some consider it a minor masterpiece for its skillful writing, musical humor, and effective balancing of the unusual instrumental forces.

Of all his works, it was the septet that Saint-Saëns reportedly liked the most, even though he once confessed to Lemoine, “When I think how much you pestered me to make me produce, against my better judgment, this piece that I did not want to write and which has become one of my great successes, I am at loss to explain it.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Préambule from Septet; Trio a Cordes Francais; EMI 47543