WINGATE: SYMPHONY NO. 6
Symphonie Zoölogique, Grand Concert des Animaux
(avec toutes mes excuses à Saint-Saëns)

(THIS PROJECT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS)

[English title: Zoological Symphony; Concerto Grosso of the Animals (with apologies to Saint-Saëns)]

Movements:
1. L’OUVERTURE: Le forêt (The Forest); Tutti.

   [I. LES CORDES]
2. Le lièvre (The Hare); Le violon (Violin).
3. Le renard (The Fox); L’alto (Viola).
4. Le cerf (The Deer); Le violoncelle (Cello).
5. Le tigre (The Tiger); La contrebasse (Contrabass).
6. Le papillon (The Butterfly); La harpe (Harp).

    [II. LES BOIS]
7. La colombe (The Dove); La flûte (Flute).
8. La souris (The Mouse); Le piccolo (Piccolo).
9. La tortue (The Turtle); Le hautbois (Oboe).
10. Le corbeau (The Raven); Le cor anglais (English Horn).
11. Le singe (The Monkey); La clarinette (Clarinet).
12. Le hibou (The Owl); La clarinette basse (Bass Clarinet).
13. Le crapaud (The Toad); Le basson (Bassoon).
14. L’ours (The Bear); Le contrebasson (Contrabassoon). 

    [III. LES CUIVRES]
15. Le faucon (The Falcon); Le cor (Horn).
16. La chauve-souris (The Bat); La trompette (Trumpet).
17. Le serpent (The Snake); Le trombone (Trombone).
18. L’éléphant (The Elephant); Le tuba (Tuba).

    [IV. LES PERCUSSIONS]
19. Le crabe (The Crab); Le xylophone (Xylophone).
20. L’anguille électrique (The Electric Eel); Les cymbales (Cymbals).
21. La méduse (The Jellyfish); Les carillons (Chimes).
22. La raie manta (The Manta Ray); Le gong (Gong).
23. Le poulpe (The Octopus); Le marimba (Marimba).
24. Le requin (The Shark); Les timbales (Timpani).

25. LE FINAL: Les dauphins et les baleines (The Dolphins and Whales); Les cordes et les cuivres (Strings and Brass).


Notes:
Wingate’s Symphony No. 6, (known in English as ‘The Zoological Symphony; Concerto Grosso of the Animals [with apologies to Saint-Saëns]’), takes its obvious inspiration (and penchant for French-language titling) from Camille Saint-Saëns’ famed 1886 chamber piece Le Carnaval des animaux (‘Carnival of the Animals’), but blows up that French composer’s droll concertino concept into an elaborate orchestral concertante work, intending to introduce listeners of all ages to the various species of orchestral instruments in the guise of a zoological music tableau. The symphony’s 23 central character pieces are each micro-concertos for different instruments, successively evoking a different animal in each movement while allowing every spotlighted instrument to show off its characteristic virtuosity and sonic beauty; in effect, a musical popularity contest for both favorite instruments and favorite animals. Also a de facto concerto for orchestra of sorts, the work requires beautiful and impressive playing from all the principal players in turn, however briefly. 

Beginning in an ebullient musical forest, the various string instrument fauna are introduced first, then the woodwinds, then brass, but the procession of percussion instruments causes the piece to migrate to more mysterious habitats, namely, the sea. The symphony’s finale then abandons the concertante format altogether in order to cap off the proceedings with a grandiose jeux d’eau between the dolphins and the whales, here majestically embodied by the tutti strings and the orchestral brass respectively, yet ultimately engulfed by the teeming oceanic splendor of the full orchestra. 

Part Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and part bits-and-pieces-of-every-late-romantic-concerto-for-every-instrument-ever, with perhaps a dash of Debussy’s La Mer or Respighi’s Pini di Roma thrown in at the end, Wingate’s Symphonie Zoölogique occupies a unique place in the children’s concert repertoire (along with his similarly-structured and pageant-like Symphony No. 2, Kleetüden), as well as a fresh spot in the evolutionary taxa of orchestral showpieces.

Score cover design features Tiergarten ('Zoo') by Paul Klee, 1918