Camille saint saens danse macabre ballet

1874 tone poem written by Camille Saint-Saëns

For the medieval allegory, see Danse Macabre.

Danse macabre, Op.

40, is a symphonic poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

Danse macabre composer

It premiered 24 January 1875. It is in the key of G minor. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis.^[1] In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a symphonic poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin part.

Analysis

According to legend, Death appears at midnight every year on Halloween.

Camille saint-saëns danse macabre

Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle (here represented by a solo violin). His skeletons dance for him until the cockerel crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.

The piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight) which i