Carnival Complete

The Mule | 24x20 | collage on panel | ©St.Hilaire Nelson

The Carnival of the Animals inspired series is completed with the addition of varnish to this collage of a mule. My son and I made some hand-painted papers at the kitchen table this week to be sure I had all the dark brown I needed for this horse/donkey. The kangaroo piece yielded me plenty of golden brown weeks before.

I am quite happy with the fun little horse barn in the back and all the patterning in the face of the mule. When searching for reference photos of mules vs. donkeys online, I was not sure which was which! Still not.

Below is the Bruce Adolphe poem written for this particular movement of Saint-Saën's musical suite, I plan to include all of the poems with all of the collages at the Maitland Art Center solo exhibition Exquisite Harmony.

Now mules are only half a horse
The other half is donkey.
The tunes they sing are therefore coarse
Though some are kind of funky.
The mule is dumb but sure of foot
And makes a great companion.
Especially when they are put
On the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Anyone ever ride the mules at the edge of the Canyon?

Music Collages

©St.Hilaire Nelson

Carnival of the Animals is musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Saint-Saëns. It was composed in 1886 while Saint-Saëns was vacationing in a small Austrian village. It was originally scored for a chamber group of flute/piccolo, clarinet, two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, but it is usually performed today with a full orchestra of strings.

Saint-Saëns, concerned that the piece was too frivolous and likely to harm his reputation as a serious composer, supressed performances of it and only allowed one movelent, Le cygne (The Swan) to be published in his lifetime. Only small private performances were given for close friends.

Saint-Saëns did include a provision which allowed the suite to be published after his death, and it has since become one of his most popular works. It is a favorite of music teachers and young children.

As the title suggests, the work follows a zoological program and progresses from the first movement, Intruduction et marche royale du lion, through portraits of elephants and donkeys to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs. Several of the movements are of humorous intent.

I was sitting in orchestra rehearsal one night thinking about representing music through visual art when all of a sudden it came to me. Carnival of the Animals would make a great collage series! We had been rehearsing the music for months in preparation for our spring concert, but it took a while to hit me.

There are some wonderfully whimsical poems written by Bruce Adolphe which I will display with each piece of art from each movement of the suite. They will help to tie in the humorous music with the whimsical collage art.