Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre, Op.40

Introduction

Danse macabre, Op. 40, is a tone poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. 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, which is based on an old French superstition. In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a tone poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin.

Analysis

According to legend, "Death" appears at midnight every year on Halloween. 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 rooster 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 is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The solo violin enters playing the tritone, which was known as the diabolus in musica ("the Devil in music") during the Medieval and Baroque eras, consisting of an A and an E♭—in an example of scordatura tuning, the violinist's E string has actually been tuned down to an E♭ to create the dissonant tritone. The first theme is heard on a solo flute, and the coda represents the dawn breaking (a cockerel's crow, played by the oboe) and the skeletons returning to their graves.

The piece makes particular use of the xylophone to imitate the sounds of rattling bones. Saint-Saëns uses a similar motif in the Fossils movement of The Carnival of the Animals.

Instrumentation

Danse macabre is scored for an obbligato violin and an orchestra consisting of one piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons; four horns in G and D, two trumpets in D, three trombones, one tuba; a percussion section that includes timpani, xylophone, bass drum, cymbals and triangle; one harp and strings.

Text

The text comes from the poem "Égalité, Fraternité...", part of Jean Lahor's (a pseudonym of Henri Cazalis) l'Illusion. In English translation:

Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence,
Striking a tomb with his heel,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
Zig, zig, zag, on his violin.

The winter wind blows, and the night is dark;
Moans are heard in the linden trees.
White skeletons pass through the gloom,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.

Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
You can hear the cracking of the bones of the dancers.
A lustful couple sits on the moss
So as to taste long lost delights.

Zig zig, zig, Death continues
The unending scraping on his instrument.
A veil has fallen! The dancer is naked.
Her partner grasps her amorously.

The lady, it's said, is a marchioness or baroness
And her green gallant, a poor cartwright.
Horror! Look how she gives herself to him,
Like the rustic was a baron.

Zig, zig, zig. What a saraband!
They all hold hands and dance in circles.
Zig, zig, zag. You can see in the crowd
The king dancing among the peasants.
 
But hist! All of a sudden, they leave the dance,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.
Oh what a beautiful night for the poor world!
Long live death and equality!

Reception

When Danse macabre was first performed it was not well received.

Usage

Shortly after the premiere, the piece was transcribed into a piano arrangement by Franz Liszt (S.555), a good friend of Saint-Saëns. The best-known piano transcription (for four hands) is by Ernest Guiraud. The composition was again later transcribed for piano by Vladimir Horowitz. There is an organ transcription by Edwin Lemare.

The piece was later used in dance performances, including those of Anna Pavlova.

The piece is played offstage during the first act of Henrik Ibsen's 1896 play John Gabriel Borkman.

The piece is used as a recurring ironic motif in Jean Renoir's 1939 film The Rules of the Game (Le Régle du Jeu),

An adaptation of the piece is used as the theme music for Jonathan Creek, a mystery crime series on British television.

The piece is used in the animation television series Modern Toss (TV series) as the theme tune for the character, Mr Tourette - Master Signwriter.

The piece is used in the Dutch theme park 'The Efteling' in the attraction Haunted Castle.

A portion of the piece can be heard in the 1993 western film Tombstone during the performance of the stage version of Faust.

A synthesized version of the piece is used in the soundtrack for the anime television series Dimension W.

In Neil Gaiman's novel "The Graveyard Book" the characters dance the "Macabray". In the audio book the Danse Macabre is played between chapters.

The piece is used in several instances during the 2011 Grimm episode Danse Macabre, for which it is named.

The piece can be heard during the New Year's Eve festivities in the 2014 gothic horror film, Stonehearst Asylum.

The piece is played in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush"; rather than serving merely as soundtrack, the character Rupert Giles plays the song in-universe while describing the episode's villains, the Gentlemen.