# Animal Rights & Classical Music



## chrishtf (Feb 6, 2021)

I'm doing a project about music and animal rights at the moment and have been researching the subject within the classical realm.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any classical songs on the subject of animal rights or knew of any prominent figures within the genre who spoke up for animals.

I've obviously done a lot of research on Wagner and his advocacy so far and have discovered 2 classical tracks - Mahler 1st Symphony, 3rd Movement and Benjamin Britten Our Hunting Fathers - but that's as far as I've got so far.

Any information would be amazing. Hope to hear from some of you soon x


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## John Lenin (Feb 4, 2021)

Georg tintner the conductor was very big on animal rights.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Vanessa-Mae, Glenn Gould, and Yehudi Menuhin are/were champions of animal welfare/rights.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Alan Hovhanness and his love for whales?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> Glenn Gould


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

*Brahms cleared of serial cat slaying
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/12/highereducation.arts*


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns must have had some affection for animals, because only such a person could have composed _The Carnival of the Animals_ (_Le carnaval des animaux_), a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements which Saint-Saëns wrote while interrupting' work on his rather serious Third Symphony (the only animal of which may be referenced in _that_ work being an elephant, had that animal's tusks been used for the keys of the organ for which the Third Symphony, called _The Organ Symphony_, was written).

Perhaps some research into this work will reveal something of usefulness for your project, even if it only serves you as an introduction to your report, telling about Saint-Saëns's apparent love for animals in contrast to the use of ivory for organ keys .... Perhaps the composer felt guilty about the ivory keys and sought some redemption through writing _Le carnaval_. Of course, I may be stretching a point. But the swan was treated _very_ kindly by Saint-Saëns in what may be the most familiar of the animal portraits.






Best of luck with your project. Sorry I can't be of more help.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

chrishtf said:


> I'm doing a project about music and animal rights at the moment and have been researching the subject within the classical realm.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone knew of any classical songs on the subject of animal rights or knew of any prominent figures within the genre who spoke up for animals.
> 
> ...


The crucial scene in Wagner is in Parsifal, Act 1, when Parsifal enters having just needlessly killed a bird, and Guernamanz reprimands him.

Apart from that there are some pieces of music where animals take part - Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen - for example. But nothing I can think of where the issue of animal rights is present.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Respighi has several references to animals and birds in his music: _Butantan_ from _Brazilian Impressions_, _Gli Uccelli_, etc. There is always Prokofiev's _Peter and the Wolf_, RVW: _The Lark Ascending_. Not necessarily overtly espousing animal rights but perhaps digging into the history of these compositions might reveal more about the composers' views.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Berlioz had a glass case with rare chameleons in it.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Not really an explicit case of animal rights advocacy, but in Gérard Grisey's _Le temps et l'écume_ (Time and Foam), he subjects the same musical material to different time scales: "human time", "whale time" and "bird time". I don't know how whales and birds actually conceive of time compared to humans, and I don't know if these time scales are based in scientific study or are simple metaphors, but I think it's significant that Grisey is at least aware of potential non-human ways of apprehending the world.

Liner notes here


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Just remembered what the OP needs, he owes me one, his tutor will give him an A because of this


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

And this - we're on the way to magna cum laude


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

And this, Ph.D please.


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