The "Danse macabre", Op. 40, was written as a tone poem
for orchestra in 1874 by French composer Camille
Saint-Saëns. 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 in 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. Normally heard as a symphonic performance, this
piece is unusual as an organ concerto however, I
created this arra...(+)
The "Danse macabre", Op. 40, was written as a tone poem
for orchestra in 1874 by French composer Camille
Saint-Saëns. 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 in 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. Normally heard as a symphonic performance, this
piece is unusual as an organ concerto however, I
created this arrangement to emphasize macab elements
and uniquely dynamic range of the pipe organ. I took
liberal license in my interpretation of the original
score, and as such, this arrangement is uniquely my
"vision" of how this piece should sound.
According to the ancient superstition, "Death" appears
at midnight every year on Halloween. Death has the
power to call forth the dead from their graves to dance
for him while he plays his fiddle (represented by
strings on the Swell with its "E-string" tuned to an
"E-flat" in an example of scordatura tuning). His
skeletons dance for him until the first break of dawn,
when they must return to their graves until the next
year.
The piece opens with MIDI Chimes playing a single note,
D, twelve times to signify the clock striking midnight
