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"Le cygne", pronounced [lə siɲ], or "The Swan", is the 13th and penultimate movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. Originally scored for solo cello accompanied by two pianos, it has been arranged and transcribed for many instruments but remains best known as a cello solo.

Music

"Le cygne" (The Swan)

Performed by John Michel, cello

"Le cygne" (The Swan)

Performed by Alisa Weilerstein (cello) and Jason Yoder (marimba)

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The piece is in 6/4 time, with a key signature of G major and a tempo marking andantino grazioso. The slow cello melody is accompanied by almost constant broken chord figurations on the pianos. When performed as a separate movement, not in the context of The Carnival, "The Swan" is frequently played with accompaniment on only one piano.

This is the only movement from The Carnival of the Animals that the composer allowed to be played in public during his lifetime. He thought the remaining movements were too frivolous and would damage his reputation as a serious composer.

"Le cygne" illustrates the fleeting nature of beauty with its interpretation of the legend of the "swan song": A popular (albeit erroneous) belief among the ancient Greeks and Romans, who regarded the swan as the most beautiful of animals, was that the mute swan is silent until its final moments of life, during which it sings the most beautiful of all birdsongs.

Transcriptions and adaptations

In the 1890s, Louis van Waefelghem adapted "Le cygne" for viola or viola d'amore and piano. The edition was published by Durand in 1895.
Leopold Godowsky wrote a free transcription for piano solo which is well-known.^[1]^[2]
In Leonard Bernstein's recording of the piece with the New York Philharmonic, the melody is performed on double bass by a 20-year-old Gary Karr.
Montserrat Caballé recorded a version in which she vocalizes sections of the melody accompanied by a piano.
In the early 20th century, Clara Rockmore, the renowned thereminist, performed it on theremin with her sister Nadia Reisenberg accompanying her on the piano. Because of its slow tempo and mostly legato performance indications, the movement is suitable for the theremin and has joined Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" and Jules Massenet's "Méditation" from his opera Thaïs among the classical works central to the theremin repertoire.
Steven Mead arranged the piece for euphonium and piano in 1995, in the key of E-flat major.
Tony Renis created lyrics to "Le cygne" for the song "Notte Stellata (The Swan)" that appeared on Italian pop-opera trio Il Volo's self-titled debut album.
A jazz version was created by the Italian ensemble No Trio for Cats in 2021 under the title "O Cisne de Janeiro".
A sped up more upbeat version of "Le cygne" was created for the video game Gran Turismo 7.

Uses in choreography

"Le cygne" is often known as The Dying Swan, after a poem by Tennyson. Inspired by swans that she had seen in public parks, Anna Pavlova worked with choreographer Michel Fokine, who had read the poem, to create the famous 1905 solo ballet dance which is now closely associated with this music. According to tradition, the swan in Pavlova's dance is badly injured and dying. However, Maya Plisetskaya re-interpreted the swan simply as elderly and stubbornly resisting the effects of aging; much like herself (she performed The Swan at a gala on her 70th birthday). Eventually the piece came to be considered one of Pavlova's trademarks.^[3]

"Notte Stellata (The Swan)" by Yuzuru Hanyu

Japanese figure skater and two-time Olympic champion, Yuzuru Hanyu, used Il Volo's adaption of Saint Saëns' "Le cygne", titled "Notte Stellata (The Swan)", as a program music at exhibition galas of various major skating competitions, including the 2017 World Championships, 2018 Winter Olympics, and the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final.^[4]^[5] The song was suggested to him by Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova and choreographed by David Wilson from Canada.^[5]^: 2

Hanyu performed the program as a tribute to the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. On March 11, 2011, he was practising at his home rink in Sendai, when the earthquake hit the north-east coast of Japan. The program is a reflection of his own memories, having experienced a blackout at the evacuation center on the night of the disaster. In 2018, Hanyu performed the program at the annual charity event 24-hour TV "Love Saves the Earth" [ja] on Nippon TV.^[6] His annual ice show with the title Yuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata is a special commemoration event of the earthquake, held at Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Rifu on the weekend of March 11.^[7]

Hanyu's program served as inspiration for the ballet performance "Notte Stellata" by the American Crescendo Conservatory, led by Christina Valdez, at the Kauffmann Performing Arts Center in Kansas City, Missouri on June 16, 2019.^[8]^[9]

Other choreographies

In 1949 the American synchronized swimmer Beulah Gundling created a routine inspired by Fokine's choreography and entitled "The Swan" to "Le cygne" by Saint-Saëns.^[10]^{[failed verification]}