The "Danse Macabre" (Opus 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 arrangement for Harp and Strings
however, ...(+)
The "Danse Macabre" (Opus 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 arrangement for Harp and Strings
however, I created this arrangement to emphasize macab
elements and uniquely dynamic range of the Concert
(Pedal) Harp. I took liberal license in my
interpretation of the original score, and as such, this
arrangement is uniquely my "vision" of how this piece
sounds to me.
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 interpretation in Measure 25+ is of a solo violin
playing the tritone (or "Devil's interval") consisting
of an A and an E-flat—in an example of scordatura
tuning, the violinist's E string has actually been
tuned down to an E-flat to create the dissonant
tritone. Starting at Measure 173, is a melodic quote of
the "Dies irae", a Gregorian chant from the Requiem
Mass that is melodically related to the work's second
theme. The Dies irae is presented in a major key, which
is unusual. The abrupt break in the texture at measure
456 represents the dawn breaking (a cockerel's crow,
played on the melody) and the skeletons returning to
their graves.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre) and other
sources.
I created this arrangement from the orchestral work for
Concert (Pedal) Harp & Strings (Violins, Violas, cellos
& Basses).
