Music Arranger: Hanneke Debie

“Le Carnival des Animaux” was a series of songs representing different animals, composed by Camille Saint-Saëns. One of those pieces is Aquarium, which is a beautiful and mysterious song.
The original version is played by piano's, a harp and a glass harmonica, which was quite a new instrument at the time.

Camille was a very traditional composer, and the carnival wasn't a traditional piece, but quite frivolous. That's why he forbade public performances of the carnival during his lifetime, being afraid it would damage his reputation. Instead, it became one of his most well-known and loved pieces.

When I had just started arranging songs for the hand-cranked N30, Aquarium was one of the first pieces I arranged. The song flows beautifully like water, with lots of arpeggios and glissandos, which makes it perfect for a music box.

I rearranged the song for the N40 to make the best use of its increased capabilities for speed and range. I used existing arrangements for harp and piano to base this arrangement on.

【More about the Arranger】
I'm Hanneke Debie. I've always loved music boxes, and owned a paper roll music box since I was a child. I've been arranging songs for music boxes for a number of years now, and share my work on my youtube channel as Madam Musicbox: https://www.youtube.com/@HannekeDebie

🔍 “Hanneke Debie” to find more melodies she arranged