Le cygne, , or The Swan, is the 13th and penultimate movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. Originally scored for solo cello accompanied by two pianos, it has been arranged and transcribed for many instruments but remains best known as a cello solo. Music The piece is in 6/4 time, with a key signature of G major and a tempo marking andantino grazioso. The slow cello melody is accompanied by almost constant broken chord figurations on the pianos. When performed as a separate movement, not in the context of The Carnival, The Swan is frequently played with accompaniment on only one piano. This is the only movement from The Carnival of the Animals that the composer allowed to be played in public during his lifetime. He thought the remaining movements were too frivolous and would damage his reputation as a serious composer. Because of its slow tempo and mostly legato performance indications, the movement is suitable for performance on the theremin and has joined Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vocalise and Jules Massenet's Méditation from his opera Thaïs among the classical works central to the theremin repertoire. Le cygne illustrates the fleeting nature of beauty with its interpretation of the legend of the "swan song": A popular (albeit erroneous) belief among the ancient Greeks and Romans, who regarded the swan as the most beautiful of animals, was that the mute swan is silent until its final moments of life, during which it sings the most beautiful of all birdsongs. Transcriptions and adaptations In the 1890s, Louis van Waefelghem adapted Le cygne for viola or viola d'amore and piano. The edition was published by Durand in 1895. In Leonard Bernstein's famous recording of the piece with the New York Philharmonic the melody is performed on double bass by a 20-year-old Gary Karr. Montserrat Caballé recorded a version in which she vocalizes sections of the melody accompanied by a piano. In the early 20th century, Clara Rockmore, the renowned thereminist, performed it on theremin with her sister Nadia Reisenberg accompanying her on the piano. Steven Mead arranged the piece for Euphonium and Piano in 1995, in the key of E♭ Major. Tony Renis created lyrics to Le Cygne for the song "Notte Stellata (The Swan)" that appeared on Italian pop-opera trio Il Volo's self-titled debut album. A jazz version was created by the Italian ensemble No Trio for Cats in 2021