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THE TORTOISE & THE CAN-CAN
French composer Camille Saint-Saëns shows off his sense of humor in
“The Tortoise” from The Carnival of the Animals. He took one of the
fastest melodies ever, “Infernal Galop” (often called the Can-Can) by
Jacques Offenbach, and paired it with one of the slowest animals in the
world—a big old tortoise.
The “Tortoise” is one of several songs that Saint-Saëns wrote about
animals while he was on a vacation in Austria. He put them together
into a collection called The Carnival of the Animals.
If you’d like to hear more of Saint-Saëns’ musical portraits, you can look
up The Carnival of the Animals on You Tube.
Here are some of the other animals he wrote music for:
Can you follow along with both pieces on the map below?
Do you see your favorite animal here?
What voice sounds could you use to communicate the idea of these
animals? What body sounds?
Can you find sounds in your house that you could use to create
musical portraits of these animals?
Will your sounds be long or short? Fast or slow? High or low?
Loud or soft?
Map by Rob Dunn
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BYU SCHOOL OF MUSIC
What other animals could you represent using sounds?
MUSICAL PORTRAITS
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