- Saint-Saëns composed this piece for cello (or horn) and piano in 1874 and it was published the same year.1 He later arranged it for solo cello and orchestrated the piano part.2
- Saint-Saëns dedicated this piece to Henri-Jean Garigue,3 a French horn player who played in the Paris Opera orchestra, and who had won a first prize (premier prix) while a student at the Paris Conservatory.4
- Garigue (1842-c.1907) was the author of a horn method book, Méthode pour le cor à pistons (1888).5
- Garigue was a member of the Société de musique de chambre pour instruments à vent (Wind Instruments Chamber Music Society), a group founded in 1879 by Saint-Saëns’ friend Jacques Taffanel (see 17767 Romance for Flute and Orchestra, Opus 37). Their mission was to promote solo and chamber music for wind instruments.6
- Garigue most likely played the world premiere of the piece in early February in Paris. A writeup from the Feb. 15, 1874 Revue et Gazette Musicale of Paris reported: “the success of the concert…was shared by the beneficiary, by Monsieur Saint-Saëns and his works, as well as by Monsieur Danbé and Monsieur Garigue.” 7
Sources
- Daniel M. Fallon, Sabina Teller Ratner, and James Harding, “Saint-Saëns, (Charles) Camille,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 15, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000024335.
- Dominick Rahmer, preface to Romances for Horn and Piano by Camille Saint-Saëns (Munich: G. Henle, 2013), v.
- “Romance, OP.36 (Saint-Saëns, Camille),” IMSLP, accessed January 15, 2020, https://imslp.org/wiki/Romance,_Op.36_(Saint-Sa%C3%ABns,_Camille).
- Edward Blakeman, Taffanel: Genius of the Flute (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 69.
- Rahmer, preface to Romances for Horn and Piano by Camille Saint-Saëns, v.
- Blakeman, Taffanel: Genius of the Flute, 69.
- Rahmer, preface to Romances for Horn and Piano by Camille Saint-Saëns, v.
Cut IDs
11770, 21859