Discord & Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Discord and Rhyme is a podcast where we discuss the albums we love, song by song.

101: Camille Saint-Saëns - The Carnival Of The Animals (1886)

August 30, 2022  /  Amanda Rodgers

“In outdoing Barnum and Bailey and Ringling, Saint-Saëns has done a miraculous thingling.”

—Ogden Nash

John was always going to tackle a classical work for the podcast at some point, it was just a matter of finding the right piece. For our first visit to the orchestral hall, Discord & Rhyme is also taking a trip to the circus by covering The Carnival of the Animals, a 25-minute suite of musical jokes that 19th century French composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote to put off writing the symphony he’d been paid to write. The Carnival of the Animals was John’s introduction to classical music as a kid, and when he fell back in love with classical music in his late 20s he was delighted to find that he still loved this piece (even without the silly poems in his version from when he was a kid). John (host), Mike (moderator), and returning special guest Sean Rodgers had a wonderful, in-depth conversation, ranging from the niche (like John’s love of birdsong in classical music), to the serious (like Saint-Saëns’ feelings about the musical world changing around him more than he liked), to the ridiculous (the notion of a tortoise doing the world’s slowest can-can). Come listen to us make the case that classical music is for everyone, and that The Carnival of the Animals is one of the funnest gateways to classical music anyone has ever written.

Miscellany

  • At one point while discussing The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, Sean made reference to the circumstances surrounding the premiere performance and stated that it took place in 1910. It actually took place in 1913.

  • Speaking of The Rite of Spring, back in 2019 the National Recording Registry (run by the US Library of Congress) published an essay John wrote about a 1940 recording of The Rite of Spring, performed by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by Stravinsky himself. A link to the essay is provided below.

  • This is actually not the first time that a clip of the opening of Tristan und Isolde has appeared on Discord & Rhyme. It appeared in episode 34 on Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds during a discussion on leitmotifs.

  • Mike’s commentary in “Fossils” begins with a lengthy reference to a scene in the Simpsons episode “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show” and we have included a link.

  • There is actually footage of Anna Pavlova performing “The Dying Swan” in 1905 to “The Swan,” and a link to a performance is provided below.

  • John really did his best with the pronunciations in this episode, but while he took four years of Russian in school and is currently learning Spanish and German in Duolingo, he has never taken French.

  • Mike has taken French, but does not know much about the French he took.

    • Ditto Sean.

  • It turns out that Pitchfork has given a perfect 10 to four classical recordings, those being: the original recordings of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach, from 1978 and 1979 respectively, and both of Glenn Gould’s recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, from 1956 and 1982. 

Other links 

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

  • John McFerrin (host)

  • Mike DeFabio (moderator)

  • Sean Rodgers

  • Amanda Rodgers (not really here) 

The Carnival of the Animals tracklist 

  1. Introduction and Royal March of the Lion

  2. Hens and Roosters

  3. Wild Asses

  4. Tortoises

  5. The Elephant

  6. Kangaroos

  7. Aquarium

  8. Characters With Long Ears

  9. The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods

  10. Aviary

  11. Pianists

  12. Fossils

  13. The Swan

  14. Finale 

Other clips used 

Camille Saint-Saëns :

  • Danse Macabre

  • Symphony No. 3: IIb. Maestoso

Others:

  • Myrkur - Løven

  • Jean-Phillipe Rameau - La Poule

  • Sly & the Family Stone - Chicken

  • Georg Frideric Handel - Hallelujah (Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts)

  • Georg Frideric Handel - Hallelujah (Sir Thomas Beecham conducts)

  • Jacques Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld: Overture

  • Hector Berlioz - Dance of the Sylphs

  • Felix Mendelssohn - Incidental Music to a Midsummer Night’s Dream: Scherzo

  • The Pogues - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

  • Ennio Morricone - The Harvest

  • Alan Menken - Beauty and the Beast (1991) Soundtrack: Prologue

  • Plan B - I Am the Narrator

  • Space - Uranus

  • Susumu Yokota - Traveler in the Wonderland

  • Amon Tobin - Sordid

  • Giacchino Rossini - The Barber of Seville: Overture

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony 41 K.551: 1. Allegro Vivace

  • Felix Mendelssohn - Symphony 3: 1. Andante con Moto

  • Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde: Prelude

  • Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring: Danse Sacrale

  • Boymerang - Rules

  • Gustav Holst - The Planets: Neptune, the Mystic

  • Sevdaliza - Shahmaran

  • Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony 6: II. Szene am Bach

  • Maurice Ravel - Daphnis et Chloé: Introduction

  • Olivier Messiaen - Liturgie de Cristal

  • King Crimson -  Dinosaur

  • Tom Waits - Earth Died Screaming

  • Giacchino Rossini - Una Voce Poco Fa

  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus

  • Clara Rockmore - The Swan

  • The Beach Boys - I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times

  • Hiatus Kaiyote - Mobius Streak

  • Susumu Yokota - Music From the Lake Surface

  • Jan Vogler & Bill Murray - The Swan / Blessing the Boats

  • Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony 6: IV. Sturm

  • Modest Mussorgsky - The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Ravel Orchestration)

  • Gabriel Faure - Requiem: In Paradisium

  • Maurice Ravel - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams - English Folk Song Suite: Seventeen Come Sunday

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams - For All the Saints (Sine Nomine)

  • Wendy Carlos & "Weird Al" Yankovic - Shark

  • Erik Satie - Véritables Préludes Flasques (Pour un Chien): On Joue

Band/album personnel 

  • The London Sinfonietta - Chamber Orchestra

  • Charles Dutoit - Conductor

  • Robin McGee - Double Bass

  • Antony Pay - Clarinet

  • Sebastian Bell - Flute

  • Christopher van Kampen - Cello

  • Pascal Rogé - Piano

  • Cristina Ortiz - Piano

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

  • Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

  • Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

  • The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

  • Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

  • Herbie Hancock - Hornets

  • Kraftwerk - Autobahn

  • Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

  • Camille Saint-Saëns - Introduction and Royal March of the Lion (this episode only)

You can buy or stream The Carnival of the Animals at the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.

tags / John McFerrin

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