What is the halloween story behind Camille Saint-Saens Danse Macabre?
I do not think that Saint-Saens wrote the Danse Macabre as a Halloween story. People associate it with Halloween because it has ghosts and skeletons and eerie music. “Danse Macabre” is the “Dance of Death”. It is a descriptive piece that tells the story with music(Examples) 1. Death tunes his violin. You hear a violin solo at the beginning. Death is summoning the dead from the grave to perform the dance of the dead. 2. One by one each group comes out. Witches and ghosts come flying. There are instruments that have a theme song and special instruments for this part. 3. Another is the danse of the skeletons. I like this one. It has the xylophone melodies that sound like bones. 4. Another part has everybody dancing together; the music gets faster and louder and louder. Good place to teach dynamics. 5. Then a rooster crows(the clarinet). It’s morning, the sun is rising, time for everybody to go back home. 6. Then church bells ring, good is impled over the scary, and everybody is happy.
