An Analysis Of Neoclassicism Seeds In Camile Saint-saens' Musical Work

Camille Saint-Saens' music composations are very important inFrench musical history, from the 19th to the 20th century. CamilleSaint-Saens' work seeds the Neoclassicism, and the combination withFrench tradition creates an innovative music style. His work not onlyaffects the evolution of French music, but also gives impetus to thepopularization of the Neoclassicism in the world at beginning of 20thcentury.This paper explores the Neoclassicism seeds in Saint-Saens' musicalwork from different angles. The paper is divided into four chapters. Themain content includes a brief introduction of Neoclassicism, therelationship between Saint-Sachs and French traditional music, thecharacteristics of the combination of Neoclassicism seeds withtraditionalism, the effects to music movement in 20th century, thebackground and underlying impetus for Saint-Sachs' work, thebackground and explanation for French Neoclassicism, the characteristicsof musical language and Saint-Sachs' musical art viewpoints. Theintroduction part focuses on the start and characteristics of Neoclassicism,and the literature review. Chapter 1 analyzes the original foundation ofFrench traditional music in Saint-Sachs' work, and then explores thepersonal artistic tendency in the creation and the comparison of artisticstyles with contemporary French musicians. Based on Saint-Saens'combination of Neoclassicism seeds with traditionalism, Chapter 2analyzes the Neoclassicism elements in harmony, melody etc. Followingthe structural analysis of Saint-Sachs' musical form and musicalcomposition, Chapter 3 summarize the characteristics of FrenchNeoclassicism and French music during later 19th to early 20th century.The last Chapter explains how Saint-Saens' work affects French music and Neoclassicism in 20th century.In all, this paper is based on analysis of early explorer andpractitioner of Neoclassicism, with the extension to the study of thecombination of Neoclassicism with French traditional music and itsindirect effects Neoclassicism musical movement in 20th century.