Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre, Op. 40

Danse macabre medieval painting reflecting Saint-Saëns symphonic poem

The grotesque imagery of death and danse macabre reflects the dark, ironic atmosphere evoked by Saint-Saëns’s symphonic poem.

Camille Saint-Saëns’s advocacy of musical innovation was never merely theoretical. He actively embraced new forms and techniques, contributing decisively to musical modernity in nineteenth-century France. Among these innovations was the symphonic poem, a genre he cultivated under the influence of his admired friend Franz Liszt—and in which he became the first French composer to excel.

Danse macabre, Op. 40, is among Saint-Saëns’s most celebrated symphonic poems. Drawing on a traditional legend, the work transforms a medieval allegory into a vivid orchestral drama of striking emotional intensity. Death appears as a skeletal figure who summons the living to the grave, a motif deeply rooted in medieval symbolism. By the nineteenth century, this image had evolved into a fantastical midnight revel, where resurrected skeletons dance until dawn.

Saint-Saëns initially conceived the piece as a musical counterpart to a contemporary French poem depicting Death playing the violin in the frozen courtyard of a church, while the dead rise from their tombs to follow his demonic melody. This imagery provided the composer with fertile ground for musical dramatization and imaginative orchestration.

The work opens with slow, deliberate strokes that mark the tolling of midnight. Almost immediately, a solo violin introduces a grotesque waltz—its eerie color heightened by the instrument’s altered tuning—which sets the macabre scene in motion. As the dance intensifies, orchestral forces intertwine, accelerating the swirling momentum and suggesting Death’s temporary triumph over mortal life.

Suddenly, an oboe imitates the crowing of a rooster at dawn. With the arrival of daylight, the spell is broken: the skeletons retreat to their graves, and Death concedes that his hour has passed.

When Danse macabre was first performed in Paris in 1875, its bold harmonic language and unsettling imagery shocked audiences. The reaction was so hostile that Saint-Saëns’s elderly mother reportedly fainted amid the uproar. Time, however, has vindicated the composer. Today, Danse macabre is recognized as a masterpiece of orchestral storytelling and remains one of Saint-Saëns’s most frequently performed and beloved works.

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