French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, known for his intellect and imagination, channeled the charm of the world’s wildlife in his 14-movement symphonic suite, The Carnival of the Animals. In each movement, he highlights an animal or a particular place you might find one—like aviaries and aquariums. Whether elephant, lion, donkey, or swan, each creature of our animal kingdom has its own unique aura that comes across through its appearance, movements, vocalizations, and habitat.
Halfway through the suite, Saint-Saëns invites listeners to soak up the otherworldly beauty of the sea in the “Aquarium” movement.
Did his work do our marine life justice?
We asked Erin Lundy, manager of conservation initiatives at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, about her thoughts on the music, the hidden wonders of underwater habitats, and how pairing art and science can make a difference in the conservation world.
What feelings come up when you hear the “Aquarium” movement?
The “Aquarium” movement is beautiful. I think it evokes a sense of wonder, mystery, and an almost uneasiness in some aspects of it. To me, it’s very reminiscent of being in the ocean, in the depths where you can’t quite see the bottom. You can hear the playfulness of bubbles floating to the surface and light trickling through. But if you look down, it’s a little dark and you might not know what’s lurking beneath—that really captures what the ocean’s all about. There’s so much that’s unexplored…but it’s cool that we don’t know everything there is to know about the ocean.
Juanjo Mena leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in “Aquarium” from The Carnival of the Animals, featuring pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque.
What’s something that many people overlook about the sea and the things in it?
I think we tend to see animals through this incredibly human-centric lens. We see a frog and say, “Oh, maybe it lives in mud, and it’s a little bit gross and slimy,” or we’ll see a shark and say, “Hey, that’s a little bit scary!”
But really, these animals are incredibly well-adapted to the ecosystems in which they live. Through their lens, they are doing just fine, and it’s actually really beautiful to appreciate the harmony in which animals live with their environments.
The biggest misconception is just forgetting to look at an animal through the lens of understanding what its purpose is in the ecosystem it inhabits. I hope that with zoos and aquariums, people can see an animal having a full life and living the way that it’s supposed to, and finally understand, “Okay, sharks maybe aren’t that scary—they’re just fulfilling a niche in their ecosystem,” or “Frogs aren’t that gross! They’re just hanging out and being a little guy in a forest!”
In The Carnival of the Animals, clarinets become cuckoo birds, and strings become donkeys. Have you ever heard an animal make a noise that we might perceive as musical?
Yeah! There’s always a symphony around us, and we sometimes forget to appreciate it when we step outside.
In Hawaii, if you just dip your ears in the water when it’s humpback whale season, you can hear them singing from miles away. You can hear birds singing, and even our amphibians and frogs are always bellowing—they each have their own distinct trill or chirp.
We have a frog here in California called the Pacific Tree Frog, and because it sings so loudly, it is known for its call.
Animals are always around us communicating with sound and without sound. Whether or not you consider that music might be our human-centric lens, but it sounds musical to me, and I think it’s beautiful to see in balance with its environment.
Saint-Saëns was also a bit of a Renaissance man—he dabbled in poetry, philosophy, astronomy, and, of course, animal advocacy. How can combining arts and sciences help educate, inform, or simply excite people about conservation?
I think it’s funny that we so often separate art and sciences when, in a lot of ways, they’re two sides of the same coin. Both art and science are a way to perceive the world, understand the world, and then express your perception and understanding. Whether that looks like data, numbers, an art piece, or a musical composition, people are just trying to express how they’ve seen the world.
As much as science can validate our conservation work (It is helpful to know how many Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs still exist in the wild), that doesn’t necessarily get people to care about them. Part of what’s important is getting more context and evoking a feeling—that’s where art and music are incredibly important in getting people to connect with whatever species or ecosystem we’re trying to preserve. Having that is critically necessary in order to move these things forward and get public support behind what we’re doing.
Whether you’re listening to animal “music” out in nature, visiting your local zoo or aquarium, or experiencing the magic through music like The Carnival of the Animals, we hope to see you show your support for creative works and wildlife wonders of our world!