In 1872, Saint-Saëns wrote “Danse Macabre” as a vocal piece, but in 1874, he rearranged it to be a tone poem - an orchestrated piece that illustrates and evokes a story in sound. It was from this fable that Camille Saint-Saëns found the inspiration to compose “Danse Macabre.”
![petrucci music library danse macabre petrucci music library danse macabre](https://www.everynote.com/goods.pic/Horowitz-Danse-Macabre.gif)
The specter then summons the dead to rise and dance to his fiddle until the cock crows at morning. Soon a legend was constructed in which “Death” appears every Halloween at midnight. This new art spread through France, became popular throughout Europe and stimulated the people’s imagination. These images acted as mementos mori, which represent the fragility of life and illustrated that everyone was heading towards the grave, no matter what their station. The most common form of this theme was in paintings and frescoes of skeletons moving arm-in-arm with people - typically a pope, emperor, child, king, and laborer. The term Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) was coined in the Late Middle Ages to describe popular depictions of the dead, or the personification of death, summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance around a grave. For this, every year, we turn to Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre.”
![petrucci music library danse macabre petrucci music library danse macabre](https://musescore.com/static/musescore/scoredata/g/9b5c414232e82d485dd40c5958fc8f00d0459f06/score_0.png)
PETRUCCI MUSIC LIBRARY DANSE MACABRE MOVIE
Haunted houses are good for a quick shock and a scary movie might make you jump, but for a lasting eerie feeling, one must set the proper atmosphere.
![petrucci music library danse macabre petrucci music library danse macabre](https://cdn.imslp.org/naxoscache.php?pool=others&file=ALPHA273.gif)
It seems people are always looking for a good scare at the end of October, but these days it almost feels like the “scary” things are trying too hard. The "Danse Macabre" is a late Middle Ages notion that helped shape the Halloween we know today.