Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns)

The Danse Macabre (Eng. " Dance of Death " ), Op 40, is a tone poem by French composer Camille Saint- Saëns.

Instrumentation

General

The piece was originally written in 1872 for voice and piano. The text came from the writer Henri Cazalis. Only two years after this version, 1874, Saint-Saëns wrote the composition for orchestra by, the human voice has now been "replaced" by a solo violin.

The work is dedicated to Madame C. Montigny Remaury ( 1843-1913 ).

In addition to the version for voice and orchestra arranged this for Saint- Saëns the piece for violin and piano and for two pianos. Various composers such as Ernest Guiraud, Théodore Ritter, Edwin Lemare and Franz Liszt created transcriptions for organ, piano four hands or for solo piano.