SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019
becoming a classic
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
M. Saint-Saëns has had the rare honour of becoming a classic during his lifetime. His name, though it was long unrecognised, now commands universal respect, not less by his worth of character than by the perfection of his art. No artist has troubled so little about the public, or been more indifferent to criticism whether popular or expert. As a child he had a sort of physical repulsion for outward success:
«De l’applaudissement J’entends encor le bruit qui, chose assez étrange, Pour ma pudeur d’enfant était comme une fange Dont le flot me venait toucher; je redoutais Son contact, et parfois, malin, je l’évitais, Affectant la raideur.»[110]
[Footnote 110:
Of applause I still hear the noise; and, strangely enough, In my childish shyness it seemed like mire About to spot me; I feared Its touch, and secretly shunned it, Affecting obstinacy.
These verses were read by M. Saint-Saëns at a concert given on 10 June, 1896, in the Salle Pleyel, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his début, which he made in 1846. It was in this same Salle Pleyel that he gave his first concert.]
Later on, he achieved success by a long and painful struggle, in which he had to fight against the kind of stupid criticism that condemned him «to listen to one of Beethoven’s symphonies as a penance likely to give him the most excruciating torture.»[111] And yet after this, and after his admission to the Academy, after Henry VIII and the Symphonie avec orgue, he still remained aloof from praise or blame, and judged his triumphs with sad severity:
«Tu connaîtras les yeux menteurs, l’hypocrisie Des serrements de mains, Le masque d’amitié cachant la jalousie, Les pâles lendemains
«De ces jours de triomphe où le troupeau vulgaire Qui pèse au même poids L’histrion ridicule et le génie austère Vous mets sur le pavois.»[112]
M. Saint-Saëns has now grown old, and his fame has spread abroad, but he has not capitulated. Not many years ago he wrote to a German journalist: «I take very little notice of either praise or censure, not because I have an exalted idea of my own merits (which would be foolish), but because in doing my work, and fulfilling the function of my nature, as an apple-tree grows apples, I have no need to trouble myself with other people’s views.»[113]
[Footnote 111: C. Saint-Saëns, Harmonie et Mélodie, 1885.]
[Footnote 112: C. Saint-Saëns, Rimes familières, 1890.
You will know the lying eyes, the insincerity Of pressures of the hand, The mask of friendship that hides jealousy. The tame to-morrows
Of these days of triumph, when the vulgar herd Crowns you with honour; Judging rare genius to be Equal in merit to the wit of clowns.
[Footnote 113: Letter written to M. Levin, the correspondent of the Boersen-Courier of Berlin, 9 September, 1901.]
Such independence is rare at any time; but it is very rare in our day, when the power of public opinion is tyrannical; and it is rarest of all in France, where artists are perhaps more sociable than in other countries. Of all qualities in an artist it is the most precious; for it forms the foundation of his character, and is the guarantee of his conscience and innate strength. So we must not hide it under a bushel.
this was: Becoming A Classic
go to next chapter: M. Saint-Saëns in art
