The Carnival of the Animals cello solo (which evokes the swan elegantly gliding over the water) is played over rippling sixteenths in one piano and rolled chords in the other (said to represent the swan's feet, hidden from view beneath the water, propelling it along). A staple of the cello repertoire, this is one of the most well-known movements of the suite, usually in the version for cello with solo piano which was the only publication of this work in Saint-Saëns's lifetime. More than twenty other arrangements of this movement have also been published, with solo instruments ranging from flute to alto saxophone. A short
The Carnival Is Over de Oever van de Rotte". It is played in a cafe scene in the 1988 film "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Tom Springfield adapted the melody from the Russian folk song, and also wrote the lyrics, after a trip to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio. The melody is played repeatedly in an early episode of TV series "The Twilight Zone" – Season 1 Episode 3, entitled "Mr. Denton On Doomsday", first aired in 1959. The playing of "The Carnival Is Over", sung by The Seekers, has been sometimes used at the close of special events in Australia.