"Danse macabre" is a tone poem inspired by a French legend where Death plays a violin at midnight on Halloween.
Saint-Saëns uses a xylophone to mimic rattling bones and dissonant harmonies for a haunting effect.
A symphonic poem originally scored for orchestra, "Danse macabre" depicts skeletons dancing at midnight through its use of the xylophone mimicking rattling bones and the solo violin representing Death's fiddle.
Danse macabre is based on Henri Cazalis' poem depicting Death playing a violin in a graveyard at midnight.
Danse macabre is a symphonic poem depicting Death playing a violin to summon skeletons from graves on Halloween, based on an old French superstition. Its eerie melodies and use of the xylophone to mimic rattling bones make it a hallmark of Saint-Saëns' orchestral creativity.
"Danse macabre" is a symphonic poem depicting Death playing a violin at midnight,
based on a French legend. It features innovative use of the xylophone to represent
rattling bones and a solo violin tuned to a dissonant interval (scordatura).
