The Carnival of the Animals and xylophone. From the beginning, Saint-Saëns regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was "such fun" (). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the École Niedermeyer, but it was first performed at a private concert given by the cellist Charles Lebouc on Shrove Tuesday, 9 March 1886. A second (private) performance was given
The Orchestral Tubular Bells Town Hall in September 1974 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This was shown on a British television station, BBC Two, with Steve Hillage (of Gong) playing guitar. Oldfield later added his playing to the album by overdubbing his acoustic guitar at Worcester Cathedral. "The Orchestral Tubular Bells" was not the only Mike Oldfield album that was orchestrated at the time, David Bedford also wrote the score for Oldfield's second album, "Hergest Ridge". However, "The Orchestral Hergest Ridge" was never released to the public as an album. Excerpts from "The Orchestral Hergest Ridge" were also featured in the 1979 NASA film,