ANS. (“C. Saint Saëns”). 1p. Oblong 4to. June 25, 1885. Written on graph paper to a gentleman. In French with translation. “I read with interest your philosophical poem, that you were so obliging to dedicate to me, my poor little danse macabre, for which you show so much indulgence, does not merit so much honor. Believe me to be sincerely yours…”
ANS. (“C. St. Saëns”). 1p. 8vo. November 8, 1903. On black bordered stationery. In French with translation. “Thank you for your verses, but I cannot see what music could add to them…”
ALS. (“C. Saint Saëns”). 2pp. Oblong 8vo. (Paris), June 16, 1907. On 17 Rue de Longchamp stationery. To Austrian-born, French astronomer MAURICE LOEWY (1833-1907), Director of the Paris Observatory, who he addresses as “Dear and Illustrious Sir.” In French with translation. “Here am I forced to leave Paris for a fortnight without having been able to go and thank you for the magnificent present your amiable son-in-law brought me on your behalf. I would be happier on my return to convey to you my gratitude and very high esteem…” With the original envelope.
Camille Saint-Saens
A child prodigy, Saint-Saëns began his musical studies at the age of two, performing in public for the first time at five. After studying at the Paris Conservatory for two decades Saint-Saëns played the organ in Paris, prompting Franz Liszt to declare him in 1866 as the finest organist in the world. Simultaneously, Saint-Saëns was teaching and composing such memorable works as the Danse Macabre, mentioned in one of our letters, and his justifiably famous Symphony No. 3. In addition to an oeuvre exceeding 300 works, Saint-Saëns was among the first composers to write a motion picture score – the Assassination of the Duke of Guise in 1908.
Also mentioned in one of our letters is “your Dalila.” In 1877, after a decade of work, Saint-Saëns premiered his three-act grand opera Samson et Dalila (Samson and Delilah), with a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire, his cousin by marriage, based on the biblical story of the same name. It was not until the 1890s that the work became internationally popular. By 1896, it had been performed to great acclaim across the United States and Europe. Despite a ban against staging a Biblical work in England, a concert version was performed at Covent Garden and two of Delilah’s arias have become a standard part of the mezzo-soprano repertoire.
Saint-Saëns maintained a lifelong enthusiasm for science, particularly astronomy, joining, in 1893, the Société Astronomique de France and contributing to the society’s journal Revue d’astronomie Populaire. Loewy became director of the Paris Observatory in 1896 and, at the time of our letter, was working on his illustrated atlas of the moon, L’Atlas photographique de la Lune, published in 1910.
Our 1879 letter includes regards from Saint-Saëns’ wife, Marie-Laure Truffot, who was half his age. Their brief marriage disintegrated after the 1878 death of their two infant sons, for which Saint-Saëns and his mother blamed his young bride. They continued to live together for several years after which they separated.
Folded with normal wear including some staining and age-toning. In very good condition.
