“Swan” is from the thirteenth piece of the orchestra “Animal Carnival” by the composer Camille Saint Sang. It is the most popular and widely circulated piece of the suite, Saint Sang’s masterpiece. Over the past century, various forms of performance music have been adapted and have been actively performed in various concert venues. The cello and piano accompaniment version by Yo Yo Ma is the most classic, and I personally prefer the piano solo version, which feels like a crystal swan rotating on an octave box
The music has a strong sense of image introduction, and the melody (calm) makes people unable to resist screen absorption and listening. It is unbearable to accidentally “big movements” that undermine the peaceful atmosphere of the entire music. Soviet dancers once composed this song “Swan” into a ballet “Swan’s Death”; Ye Xianglun plays the same song for Lu Xiaoyu during the graduation ceremony in the movie “The Secret That Can’t Be Said.”.
Saint Sang’s “Swan” Music Therapy
Treatment symptoms:
The selection of the cello version is closer to the vocal range and has a relatively good psychotherapy effect. Step by step, the bass accompaniment is mostly arpeggios, which is smooth and soothing, and can create a feeling of relaxation. This music can relatively cultivate spatial imagination, achieve stress reduction, relieve tension, improve concentration (actively seeking the main melody of the high pitch), and have therapeutic effects on treating chronic diseases and recovering.
Suggestion: This piece of music has a slightly stronger sense of introversion. If you still feel passive or self enclosed after appreciation, you can alleviate it by appreciating Tchaikovsky’s “Little Swan Dance”. The melody is well known, and the melody is slightly lively and powerful, which can play a role in adjusting the state and invigorating the spirit
With the music, the screen brings in:
The tranquil and beautiful lakeside, the reflection of moonlight on the surface of the lake, is jagged. The first phrase is the flowing arpeggios of the piano, and the tranquil water in the lake has some movement and stillness; The second phrase: The cello slowly plays a beautiful theme melody, (sink your heart to feel the accompaniment of the bass part of your left hand, with a coherent, smooth and gentle performance style that depicts the “moonrise startles the mountain birds, and when they sing in the spring stream” on the lake surface, in a dynamic and static form.) The swan wears elegant and clean feathers and proudly raises its head to swim in the lake water, while the water surface slowly swings to both sides with the swan’s floating movement, rippling alone, The soft moonlight shines on it, graceful and graceful. It sometimes waves its white wings as if dancing
At the end of the music, the swan gradually recedes, the lake gradually calms down, and the image of the swan dancing leisurely is engraved in my mind for a long time, unable to dissipate, and I continue to immerse myself in a beautiful artistic conception
Analysis of the musical form of Saint Sang’s Swan
The song is in G major, in 6/4 beats, and has a relatively free structure in a single trilogy (ABA).
Part I: Presentation section, with a well-structured passage, clear theme, and single tonality, with sections 1-9
The second part: the middle part, extending the theme of the first paragraph, expanding the development structure, giving this piece of music development space and flexibility. Can imagine swans swimming gracefully and demurely in the water, waving their wings and dancing
The third part: the reproduction section, which reproduces the formal passage, with the same segment of the theme appearing on the main theme, echoing from the beginning to the end, forming an inward self closing structure. In the ripples created by the piano, accompanied by a melancholy and deep cello sound without decorative techniques, the beautiful and pure swan floats on the lake until it gradually disappears in the weakest rhythm of the entire song, also playing a role in balancing the musical structure and achieving a complete return.
