Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) for 2 pianos, op. 40

Описание: 0:00 Entry
0:40 Danse Macabre
7:58 Applause

Piano 1: Adrian Tang
Piano 2: Darrell Lim

Recorded at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Singapore

Danse macabre, Op. 40, is a tone poem for full orchestra, written in 1874 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. It first premiered in 24 January 1875. It is based on the French legend that Death packs a fiddle and comes to play at midnight on Halloween, causing the skeletons in the cemetery to crawl out of the ground for their annual graveyard dance party.

Initially inspired by Henry Cazalis' poetry, the first version of Danse macabre was an art song which set Cazalis' writing to music, premiering three years before the famous symphonic poem. Following this, Saint-Saëns made two further arrangements of Danse macabre - one for piano duo, and one for piano and violin.

Saint-Saëns put a fragment of the text on the front of his manuscript score, which has been translated (anonymously) in English scores as:

Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence
Striking with his heel a tomb,
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.
Through the gloom white skeletons pass,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.

Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking;
The bones of the dancers are heard to clatter –
But Sst! of a sudden they quit the round,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed!

Adapted from CBA and LaPhil
https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/danse-m...
https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces...