Posted June 10, 2025
Instrumentation: 3 flutes (+ piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, piano (two and four hands), organ, strings
Camille Saint-Saëns
(Born in Paris in 1835; died in Algiers, Algeria in 1921)
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, “Organ Symphony,” Op. 78
Part One:
- Adagio – Allegro moderato
- Poco adagio
Part Two:
- Allegro moderato – Presto
- Maestoso – Allegro
In 1886, the French composer, organ and piano virtuoso, Camille Saint-Saëns was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society of London (the same Society that had commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 1824) for a new work. Saint-Saëns had been trying to reestablish the “French Symphony” as a vital art form and so he decided to compose a symphony to fulfil this commission. The work was published as his Third Symphony and its London premiere in that same year was wildly successful, its popularity soon spreading worldwide.
In creating his Third, Saint-Saëns used Liszt’s innovative compositional technique called the “cyclical form,” which bases most of the Symphony’s thematic content on several short motives and then transforms them continually throughout the work. The opening of the first movement of Part One, Adagio, is slow and dramatic, immediately introducing the first of two cyclical motives, a mysterious and rising “four-note” phrase first heard in the oboe. The tempo soon speeds up into the Allegro moderato, and then the second motive is introduced, first heard played in the violins – a series of doubled, oscillating and rapid-fire pitches that Saint-Saëns called “restless.” These two motives will weave throughout the Symphony in many different variations. This movement builds up in waves until, just at the end, everything suddenly quiets, and the little “four-note” motive from the introductory bars whispers into silence in the string basses.
With barely a pause, the second movement of Part One, Poco adagio, begins in a hush and introduces the surprising sound of soft and pillowy registers in the organ. Treated just as a member of the orchestra, the organ here provides a luxurious harmonic bed over which the violins play a melody crafted directly out of the “four-note” motive, but here, there is no mystery, just lyrical beauty, and drifting like a floating feather. Though the middle section briefly reintroduces the second “restless” motive, the movement ends as softly as it began, leaving only the organ to fade into silence.
A rather long silence allows for the heavenly Adagio to evaporate, and then Part Two begins the third movement, Allegro moderato, with a devilishly paced, triplet-based Scherzo. The strings take the “restless” motive and make it even more agitated here, punctuated by solo rumbles in the timpani. The turbulent “restless” motive tumbles between the instruments at breakneck speed until a middle, contrasting section begins, Presto, where Saint-Saëns introduces the piano into the orchestral fabric. The virtuosic runs up the piano’s keyboard glitter like festival sparklers. As the movement proceeds, a slow and deep melody based on the “restless” motive arises from beneath the ruckus and grows into a glowing brass chorale. As the clamor from the winds calms down, the final movement breaks forth without any pause into a massive and grand major-key chord from the organ.
Saint-Saëns described this huge opening chord as “vanquishing the restless [motive]” and this sunburst explosion from the organ is, of course, why this work was nicknamed the “Organ Symphony.” All manner of transformations to the original “four-note” and “restless” motives happen in this final movement, but before long all the instruments gather together to catapult the Symphony toward its exhilarating closing bars. With the organ blasting, brass heralding, and timpani pounding, Saint-Saëns concludes this great Symphony with one of the most gloriously spine-tingling symphonic endings in music.
© Max Derrickson