Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) is one of the example of the program music. It was not originally composed for orchestra. It started out as an art song for voice and piano. The Danse Macabre, also called the Dance of Death. It is an artistic genre of allegory on the universality of death. Saint Saens was based on a poem written by a poet Henri Lazalis and composed this piece.
Here’s the poem translated in English:
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!
i have played this piece before and it is arranged in two pianos version. I love the mood this piece very much as it is very quiet in the beginning and gradually getting louder and more tension. I feel very excited when playing this piece. Let's enjoy the piece and dance together!
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