‘Carnival of the Animals’ Narrating a Great Honor

king_harris cover bubbleGood to be King
By King Harris

Some surprising things come your way when you are a news director and anchorman for television news, as it did for me in my waning years at KEYT in Santa Barbara.
In 1993, to my enchantment and for reasons that are still a bit fuzzy, I was chosen by Bach Camarata to be narrator for the Ogden Nash version of French composer, Camille Saint-Saens’s classic composition “Carnival of the Animals.”
Adrian Spence, a flutist from Ireland and leader of the small chamber orchestra called at the time “Bach Camarata,” now known as “Camarata Pacifica,” invited me to narrate the piece for showings in Ventura at City Hall; in Santa Barbara at the Music Academy of the West; and at the Santa Barbara City Zoo for two concerts on Mother’s Day in 1994 and ’95.
“Carnival of the Animals,” composed by Saint-Saens in 1886 and one of his best-liked suites, is a delightful and highly spirited salute to our animal kingdom, and the instruments used reflect the temperament and sounds of the animals chosen.
For example, the elephant is double bass and piano. This section is marked “Allegro pomposo,” the perfect caricature for an elephant.
The piano plays a waltz-like triplet figure, while the bass hums the melody beneath it. Like “Tortues,” this is also a musical joke — the thematic material is taken from the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Berlioz’s “Dance of the Sylphs” from The Damnation of Faust.
The two themes were both originally written for high, lighter-toned instruments (flute and various other woodwinds, and violin, accordingly). The joke is that Saint-Saëns moves this to the lowest and heaviest-sounding instrument in the orchestra, the double bass.
The 25-minute suite in 14 movements is fun, inventive, and light.
The narration between movements was penned in 1949 by poet, Ogden Nash, who wrote a set of humorous verses to accompany each movement, like the one for the “Fossils.”
Imagine being surrounded by some of the best classical musicians in the world as they stop for you to interpret this: “At midnight in the museum hall, the fossils gathered for a ball.”
“There were no drums or saxophones, but just the clatter of their bones, a rolling, rattling, carefree circus of mammoth polkas and mazurkas.”
“Pterodactyls and brontosauruses sang ghostly prehistoric choruses. Amid the mastodontic wassail I caught the eye of one small fossil.”
“Cheer up, sad world,” he said, and winked. “It’s kind of fun to be extinct.’”
I had so much fun with the experience that I memorized all my lines. I didn’t want to read them so much as to talk them. I have to say it was far more enjoyable than reading almost anything off a teleprompter.
I remember my mom, who was a classical music devotee, sending me the following clipping from the L.A. Times in 1995:  “The Bach Camerata will visit the Santa Barbara Zoo on Sunday for a Mother’s Day performance of Saint-Saens’ ‘Carnival of the Animals,’ beginning at 2 p.m. Joanne and Gavin Martin, a husband-and-wife piano duo, will be featured, with narration by King Harris of KEYT. Before the main concert, students of Santa Barbara’s Music and Arts Conservatory will perform. There will also be a ‘tribute’ to zoo animals that became mothers in the past year.
Admission is $5 (general), $3 (ages 2 to 12), free (seniors and children 2 and younger). Call 962-5339 for more information. The zoo is at 500 Ninos Drive.”
The zoo was the perfect place for a concert such as this. With the sun shining, musicians shielded by a small tent on a grassy knoll filled with mothers and children, and real, live animals nearby, one couldn’t ask for a better setting — or a greater honor.