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More importantly, Mittendorf has ensured that there is enough depth and insight to the writing that mature readers and fans of Saint-Saëns’ will appreciate the allusions that Mittendorf includes. The dialogue is poetically expressed, but entirely believable, and the language is modern and relevant. Mittendorf’s poems, on the other hand, are fables, each telling a story with talking animals who come to life through situations that children can appreciate and give life lessons that adults can learn from. The problem with such is that the value of the poetry is lost because the children can’t easily appreciate that type of poetry all they are able to appreciate about it where Carnival of the Animals is concerned is that the poetry is brief, otherwise, they’d all be lost to the chaos of kiddie concert ennui.
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While they are consistently well written, they are not always appropriate accompaniments. They talk about the animal and often make humourous metaphors or comparisons. So, what sets Mittendorf’s poetry apart from the poetry of all the others that are written for this music? The other poets have all written descriptive, or “lyrical” poetry. Mittendorf’s additional poems accommodate that musical need. There are an additional two poems that combine the ideas of two pairs of Saint-Saëns’ tunes, because these were originally designed to be played one after the other, without pause. Fifteen poems, including an introduction and conclusion, are presented with charming drawings.
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Mittendorf has produced a new volume illustrated by Canadian artist, Kendal Lipsett. C., is a new collection of poetry based on Saint-Saëns’ music, and it, too, is called Carnival of the Animals. Recently published by In The Deep Press, in Nanaimo B. Since the advent of Nash’s poems, it has become tradition for the music to be accompanied by poetry, if not Nash’s, then someone else’s, and plenty of poets have put pen to paper for this music: Jack Prelutsky, Peter Shickele, John Lithgow and “Weird Al” Yankovic, to name a few. They are short poems-the longest are twelve lines-that describe the animal that the music is depicting. Poet Ogden Nash wrote the first series of poems designed to accompany Saint-Saëns’ delightful music. The music is enchanting for both adults and children, but its context and brevity make it ideal for younger audience members. Each short piece portrays a different animal or group of animals, and, as a result, the music is often performed today by major symphony orchestras for Children’s concerts, and appropriately so. Carnival of the Animals by AJ Mittendorf Released July 2016Ĭarnival of the Animals is a series of fourteen short musical pieces written in 1886 by French composer, Camille Saint-Saëns for small orchestra with two pianos.