Danse Macabre - Camille Saint-Saens
Every Halloween, Death appears at the stroke of midnight, calls forth the dead from their graves, the skeletons dance while Death plays his fiddle, a cockerel crows at dawn, and the skeletons return to their graves until next year. Or so goes the story told in Camille Saint-Saens’ ‘Danse Macabre’.
What to listen out for…
A Harp chimes twelve times - midnight.
A solo Violin ‘tunes up’ with a series of tri-tones (the devil’s interval) - Death appears.
A haunting waltz theme is introduced - the skeletons begin to rise.
A xylophone depicts the rattling bones of the dancing dead.
An oboe sounds the cockerel’s crow.
Shimmering strings tell us the sun is rising - the skeletons return to their graves.
This piece, or tone poem, is musical story telling at its best, I hope you enjoy it. Just don’t have nightmares.