9 October: 10 facts about Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns, the French composer, was born on this date in 1835. Here are some things you might not know about him:

1. First of all, how on Earth do you pronounce this guy’s name? 'San-Sohn(ce)', with a hint of an 's' at the end.
2. He was born in Paris and raised by his widowed mother and an aunt. He was a child prodigy, demonstrating perfect pitch at the age of two, composing Music at four, giving his first public concert at five. He could also speak fluent Latin by the time he was 7.
3. He studied the organ and composition at the Conservatoire de Paris. While he was there he met Franz Liszt and the two became great friends. Liszt described Saint-Saëns as ‘the greatest organist in the world’. Not all composers of the time shared Liszt’s opinion, though. Claude Debussy once said, ‘I have a horror of sentimentality and cannot forget that its name is Saint- Saëns,’ and his reputation in Germany was damaged when he made negative comments about Wagner.
4. He was pushing 40 when he fell in love with Marie-Laure Truffot, who was only 19. He was so nervous about asking her to marry him that rather than ask her directly, he sent a note to her brother, asking him if he would like to become his brother in law.
5. They had two sons, but both of them died. André, aged two, fell out of a window and six weeks later, Jean-François, aged six months, contracted pneumonia and died. Saint-Saëns blamed his wife for the deaths and left her. They never divorced.
6. He was the first famous composer to write a film score. This was in 1908 and the film was called The Assassination of the Duke of Guise. The film was 18 minutes long. Saint-Saëns later developed this music into a concert work – the Opus 128 for strings, piano and harmonium.
7. He was interested in many things as well as music – geology, botany, Butterflies, mathematics and acoustics. He was interested in recordings and became the earliest born pianist to record his work.
8. One of his most famous works, The Carnival of the Animals, composed in 1886, was actually written as a joke. Saint-Saëns refused to allow it to be performed for fear it might damage his reputation as a serious composer. The only part of the work he allowed to be performed was The Swan, which became the music to which Anna Pavlova danced The Dying Swan.
9. His music is still used for soundtracks today. His Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’, which was dedicated to Liszt, was used as the main theme in the 1995 film Babe and its sequel, Babe: Pig in the City; and his Danse Macabre is the theme to the TV series Jonathan Creek.
10. He died in Algiers in 1921, of a heart attack, aged 86.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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