Camille Saint-Saens, 1835-1921: A Thematic Catalogue of his Complete Works (review)

Sabina Teller Ratner's thematic catalog of the works of Saint-Saëns is the product of a long labor beginning with her doctoral dissertation in 1972 (which included a list of the composer's piano works) and culminating in this, the first of three projected volumes. While this volume catalogs the instrumental works, volumes 2 and 3 will include the dramatic works and the vocal works, respectively. (Volume 3 is being undertaken by the French scholar Yves Gérard.) The catalog fills a gap in nineteenth-century scholarship and will be an invaluable aid to research. Ratner has consulted the archives in sixteen countries including not only France, but also Australia, Canada, and Brazil, among others. She lists a full page of libraries and institutions consulted for this catalog, although, as she notes, the majority of sources are located at the Département de la musique of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (p. xiv).

In the introduction to the catalog, Ratner includes such information as a general description of the autographs (methods of dating, details of the composer's handwriting, his working habits), and a discussion of Saint-Saëns's publishers and his correspondence. She then explains how the catalog entries are arranged. Following standard thematic catalog procedure, she has assigned each piece a number. Rather than present the works entirely in chronological order, each one is assigned a genre and the catalog is divided into sections as follows: part 1, piano (subdivided into solo, duet, and two-piano literature); part 2, organ and harmonium, harp; part 3, chamber music (with no attempt to subdivide this category); part 4, military band music; part 5, orchestral music; part 6, solo instruments and orchestra; part 7, transcriptions of works by other composers; part 8, cadenzas. The question of genre is tricky for some of these pieces. When a piece exists in more than one version, Ratner assigns it to the category in which the piece is best known. For example, the Marche héroïque was first written for two pianos, but is listed under the orchestral works (as no. 168). The two-piano version is listed within the orchestral entry. Danse macabre, on the other hand, is numbered among the orchestral works (as no. 171) with a note that it will also be included as a mélodie in volume 3. As Ratner explains in the introduction, this double listing of entries occurs when a work is well known in more than one version or when different versions have their own opus numbers (p. xxi).

Catalog entries consist of the following information, when available, in the following order: Title, Incipit, Composition, Dedication, Instrumentation, Other versions, Autograph(s), Manuscript, Publication, Transcription(s), Première, Performances, Correspondence, Literature, and Note (included rarely). In a random check of the incipits against scores, it is clear that the catalog entries are accurate. In general, the author provides incipits of each movement, often with additional measures for tempo changes within the movement (for example, a few measures of a slow introduction and then of the main body of the movement). In Danse macabre, for example, the opening thematic content of the piece is aptly expressed by two measures of the opening horn and harp unison D, three and one-half measures of the solo violin fifths and (after skipping several repeated measures) the cadence of the solo violin in g minor, and the pizzicato eighth-note theme in the flutes. The author chose not to include any more of the piece, such as the continuation of the theme in the solo violin, presumably because these opening measures are so recognizable. As she states, "sufficient bars are presented to give the basic idea of the composition" (p. xxii).

The Dedication category...