Musical Zoology

I love zoos. I have traveled to other cities in the United States just to visit top-rated zoos in the country. And whenever I am observing the fauna on display – be it big cats, feathered friends, African ungulates, cold-blooded reptiles, or even six-legged crawly critters – I invariably recall music describing many of these animals.

Of course, the work that first comes to mind is Camille Saint-Saëns’ droll Carnival of the Animals. The music is complete with roaring lions, jumping kangaroos, an aquarium and an aviary – with the regal swan taking a solo bow – but a good deal of the humor found in the piece stems from Saint-Saëns borrowing music by other composers and comically altering it. The elephant is characterized by using Berlioz’ gossamer “Dance of the Sylphs” and having it played slowly on the double bass. The tortoise is even funnier – Offenbach’s famous lively can-can is played at a lethargic pace, again by the double bass.

Galloping horses can be heard in quite a few musical compositions, including Schubert’s song Der Erlkönig, Sibelius’ symphonic poem Night Ride and Sunrise, and Franz Liszt’s orchestral tone poem Mazeppa.

Various avians are famously depicted by Ottorino Respighi in his orchestral suite Gli Uccelli (The Birds). But what’s really on display here is Respighi’s love of ancient music, basing his suite on French and Italian pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries, most famously his orchestration of Rameau’s harpsichord piece, “The Hen.” Respighi also chillingly depicts writhing snakes in the second movement of his Brazilian Impressions. And of course, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the most effective musical description of an insect in his famous “Flight of the Bumblebee.” An orchestral intermezzo from his fairytale opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the music represents an enchanted prince flying many miles to be with his father.

And lest we forget, Sergei Prokofiev depicted several animal characters in his charming children’s tale, Peter and the Wolf. Designed to introduce young people to the instruments of the orchestra, we hear the flighty bird in the flute (of course), the quacking duck on the oboe (naturally), the stealthy cat on a slinky clarinet (because, why not?), and the threatening wolf by three sinister French horns.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for my next trip to a zoo – perhaps the great one in our own backyard on Cheyenne Mountain – one of those top-rated zoos in the country!