Saint Say-Ens

Two years ago I was accompanying a French horn. I'd played for her previously. She was the first French horn I'd ever accompanied. When she came to my studio the first time for a rehearsal, I had two thoughts: the French horn is a very loud instrument and it has a very lovely timbre. For our second performance, she was performing Romance by Camille Saint-Saëns. It was a nice piece and I liked it a lot. We had a few rehearsals, she was prepared, and we were ready for the festival.

Yes, Camille is a man.

The morning of the performance, I arrived at the school and waited for her. She arrived and was allowed to perform shortly after. We entered the room and adjusted the chairs and positioned ourselves so we could see each other. Before performing, she introduced herself and the piece she was playing. 

"Hi, my name is...and I will be playing "Romance" by Camille Saint Say-Ens." I almost died right there. I knew whatever was going through that judge's head, he was sure to have already marked her down mentally because of her pronunciation. We performed, it was decent, I got paid, and that was that. (I made a mental note to discuss with students the proper pronunciation of their piece and composer after that, except Covid hit in full-force approximately a month after that performance and I put accompanying on the back-burner).

***

Over two years later, I was on the phone with a friend. He was in a very loud room and I had picked up his call on my iPad. Apparently, the audios/microphone on iPads, although decent, are not as strong as phones. Noted. 

We were talking about music and this particular composer came up again. I kept saying Saint-Saëns, and I said it the right way: San-Sohn(ce). And my friend just could not understand me whether through the din around him or the bad quality of the sound through the phone or iPad or whatever. I tried two or three times, and finally, I said, "Saint Say-Ens" to which he responded, "Ohhh. Ok." 😑

We both had a good laugh and continued on with the rest of our conversation. But for the record, I do know how to say his name correctly.