Danse Macabre ( Saint Saëns) Song
Danse MacabreCamille SaintSaëns DAMIAN WHITELEYBass TAMARA ANNA CISLOWSKAStuart Sons Pianoforte Many will recognise this famous melody from the orchestral tone poem with violin solo by Camille SaintSäens (1835 1921). However, fewer know that it began life as a song setting of the poem by Henri Cazalis describing the appearance of the Grim Reaper playing his violin on Halloween, calling the dead from their graves to dance to the eerie sound of the Devil s chord (the Tritone). The scrape of his bow on the strings can be heard within the repeated zig et zig et zig motif. In the world of opera the Devil, or Mephistopheles, is traditionally assigned to the bass voice, and at the end of this song la mort thunderously intones, LONG LIVE DEATH AND EQUALITY
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