Across the opening five movements of The Carnival of the Animals , Saint-Saëns leads his imaginary procession from the lion’s ceremonial entrance and the nervous commotion of the henhouse to the wild donkeys’ headlong speed, the tortoises’ languid parody and the elephant’s improbable waltz, turning each creature into a sharply drawn musical portrait. i Work Information Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) Title: The Carnival of the Animals ( Le Carnaval des animaux ), Part I Year of composition: February 1886 First private performance: 9 March 1886, Paris, at a musical gathering hosted by the cellist Charles-Joseph Lebouc First complete public performance: 25 February 1922, Concerts Colonne, conducted by Gabriel Pierné Genre: Humorous programmatic suite — “Grand Zoological Fantasy” Period: Romanticism — late nineteenth-century French music Structure: 14 movements in total; this article examines movements I–V Duration: approx...