Saint-Saëns and Antiquity

A ‘classical’ musician in the fullest sense of the term, Saint-Saëns, more than anyone else of his generation, was profoundly steeped in ancient culture. One might even say that his musical aesthetic was so thoroughly nurtured by that culture as actually to merge with it. If many of his works were inspired by Antiquity, this was only the most visible sign of a predilection that attained the proportions of worship, and never wavered throughout his life. Saint-Saëns was certainly not the only nineteenthcentury composer to have a passion for the ancient world, nor was that passion the exclusive preserve of the musical ‘classicists’: one need only think of Berlioz’s love for the Aeneid. But the breadth and depth of his knowledge – he was a good Latinist, which was common enough, but also a good Hellenist, which was less so, with a marked interest in archaeology in all its forms, including organology – make Saint-Saëns an exceptional case. Is there any other example of a musician of his standing who published a Note sur les décors de théâtre dans l’antiquité romaine (Note on theatrical scenery in Roman Antiquity, 1886) and an Essai sur les lyres et les cithares antiques (Essay on ancient lyres and citharas, 1902)?