Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre, Op. 40 (with Score)

Camille Saint-Saëns:
Danse macabre, symphonic poem in G minor, Op. 40 (with Score)
Composed: 1874
Violin Solo: Luben Yordanoff
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Orchestra: Orchestre de Paris

Composed in 1874 and published in 1875, Danse macabre is the third of Saint-Saëns' four orchestral tone poems and is easily his most popular work in that medium. In his Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals), composed in 1886, Saint-Saëns parodies the Danse macabre, as well as works by other composers.

The title of Danse macabre is usually translated as Dance of Death, but Ghoulish Dance or Dance of Grim Humor might better communicate the character of the piece. Saint-Saëns did not originally write the Danse macabre as a work for orchestra. It was first a song for voice and piano that the composer later transcribed and modified for orchestra. A few lines from the song's text will aid in understanding the symphonic poem: "Death at midnight plays a dance-tune/Zig, zig, zig on his violin....Through the gloom, white skeletons pass/Running and leaping in their shrouds....The bones of the dancers are heard to crack." Once the cock crows, signaling the approach of morning, the fun ends. It is possible that this is the first instance of Death being portrayed as a violinist, an instrument generally associated with the devil.

After the orchestra strikes midnight, depicted by horns and pizzicato strings, the violin soloist plays as if he/she is tuning his/her instrument before a solo flute performs a bouncy melody, which is answered by the strings. The violin soloist then enters with a lilting waltz tune, played twice and answered first by a brief return of the flute theme, with added percussion, and then the entire orchestra with the waltz theme. The piece thus far has behaved like an exposition, presenting the principal material, while what follows consists of variations on that material. Xylophones playing the flute melody depict skeletons dancing just before a fugal presentation of the waltz begins. A new melody in the woodwinds is based on the Dies irae, a chant melody setting the text of the Judgment Day and often invoked by Romantic-era composers when the subject is death. Eventually, both the flute and waltz tune sound at once in the entire orchestra, just before the violin again begins "tuning." After a huge reprise of the combined melodies, a "cock crow" sounds in the oboe and rapid scales depict the scurrying off of the creatures of the night.

[MartyMusic]

It's somehow funny to me how much more difficult the first violin part is compared to the violin solo.

[ccg]

I ended up absolutely loving this song. I mean, besides the fricking skeleton playing it on the piano, the orchestral version is so great and original that listening to it makes me learn composition skills. I really think is brilliant.

[frederickchopin]

I remember watching my good friend Liszt arrange this piece for piano

[snakeyh]

It feels so surreal that this modern sounding piece is from 1874

[suikohi]

0:43
1:19
2:02
2:08
2:30
2:56

Key change
3:04
3:19
3:30

Original key
3:53
4:08
4:34
4:48
5:07
5:12
5:33

[dio]

ааааааааааааа как же я обожаю эту композицию!!!

[Talge-wcts]

0:30
Prince Charming: **ahem** PREPARE FOUL BEAST!!! YOUR TIME IS DONE!!!
Shrek: Ooh, if you don’t mind me, could you kill me and then sing?

[aidasoto]

Lo estoy escuchando y lo escucharé hasta el final pero esto no es obra mía....sigo recordando.
Demasiado arabe arabesque, hungaro y turko

[Awhnoahofficial]

5:34 how on earth would you play this it is soo hardd

[annalisamandell]

Wonderful!!! I just want to waltz around my living room, but it’s not big enough…😊

[anthonyramirez]

This would’ve been great for Halloween. Oh well, next year

[aidasoto]

De casualidad Guillermo Sureda hijo me alteraba los documentos y me hacia creer que eran los originales. Yo siempre me daba cuenta a veces ya ni me importaba.

[deibycoc]

No sé del porqué, pero me recuerda a la primera noche que uno como principiante pasa en Minecraft :v.

[frederichlamph]

Now the Danse Macabre has exactly 666 likes

[jamesmcleish]

anyone else half-expecting to hear 'hello procrastinators' at 6:04?

[aidasoto]

Eso parece que es lo que les gusta. Pues que lo Disfruten. La Danza Macabra....me hicieron probar y no tenía que hacerlo....ya saben que esas cosas de ellos y ellas no me
En algún momento les vamos a dar de probsr lo de nosotros a ver si les y mi musiquita por ahí vamos a empezar.

[aidasoto]

Hehe recuerdo los energumenos hacerme Sentara y posar en un lugar que desoues hicieron la caratula....yo tengo mucha dude de esto....esto se ve y oye como español Moro. Demasiado arabesque para haber sido compuesto por saint-saëns con personalidad infantil y prodigious con personalidad infantil.