# Saint Saëns Danse Macabre



## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

What do you think of this piece? It was not my introduction to classical music, that was Haydn’s 83rd symphony but it was the piece that started my love for classical music. A little story: when I was about 12, my teacher played this piece in the classroom along with visuals of skeletons rising out of graves. Someone animated the story of the music, I hope it’s still on YouTube because it’s a great video. I remember not thinking very much of it. Skip forwards a few months and I was going to a performance of the mother of a friend of mine in youth orchestra. The program included Danse Macabre and I recognised it and suddenly I really liked it. So afterwards I asked the friend’s mother what piece it was and she gave me her sheet music, she also played the violin. So then I asked my teacher if I could played the solo violin parts and she agreed. That was the piece that really got me into classical music and I will always remember it fondly. My first recording and still my favourite is Dutoit with the Philarmonia Orchestra. Feel free to share your favourite recordings as well and let me know what you think of the piece


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Sounds very Gypsy like in scale pattern,sort of Brahmsie in flavor,but the harmonies feel more modern.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I think it's nice but a bit silly and I much prefer Liszt's "Totentanz"/Dies irae, preferably solo piano. (Liszt also made a piano transcription of the Saint Saens, the Naxos Liszt disc with Arnaldo Cohen includes both.)


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## oldpete (9 mo ago)

I have always enjoyed Danse Macabre. Ernest Ansermet/Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is my fave


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

EvaBaron said:


> A little story: when I was about 12, my teacher played this piece in the classroom along with visuals of skeletons rising out of graves. Someone animated the story of the music, I hope it’s still on YouTube because it’s a great video.


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## John Zito (Sep 11, 2021)

I enjoy it very much, and the Dutoit recording is also my reference (not for any reason in particular, but I've never felt the need to seek out others). The violin played high up on the low strings is one of my favorite sounds, and this is one of the signal examples for me.

When I was a kid I had a VHS tape called _Mickey's House of Villains_, which was a compilation of Halloween-themed Disney shorts. One of them was a _Fantasia_-style retelling of Hansel and Gretel that was set to the _Danse Macabre. _That's probably the first time I heard it, and for years I didn't know that it was a separate piece they had coopted. When I found that out, I got the Dutoit recording and listened compulsively I'm sure.


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

If you like that sort of sound try "Spanish Dance #5 in E minor" by Granados


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Do you know the vocal version of this piece ? It was chronologically earlier. 

I have heard it at the introductory class about Saint Saens as a part of a lecture series on operatic history. He wrote many tune-ful pieces, and also many "light" ones, which sound entertaining rather than depicting "deeper" feelings like depression. But he tended to delay publication of his light stuff, because he feared, people would not take him seriously - can you believe it ? :-D :-D :-D. 
I want to explore further, both his light entertaining songs he wrote when young, as well as his instrumental music.

This is Dance Macabre the song, sung by Tassis Christoyannis:


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

From Saint Saens, check also his Bacchanale from opera Samson et Dalila - it is a ballet music, so no operatic singing is in this part, if you are by chance allergic to it.
It is supposed to depict sexually uninhibited celebration, and this version at MET took it as far as they dared, see the end


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

People also love Carnival of Animals, one of the pieces that was published after the death of Saint Saens, because he was hiding his light stuff in order to be taken seriously, remember ? I am not linking anything, because I have to explore it myselt yet and don't know which version I like.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Danse Macabre was a classical music starter a long time ago for me too. I fondly remember my old Westminster lp with Hermann Scherchen and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (Vienna Philharmonic), and actually enjoy the piece more today than I did when first introduced to it.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

If only I could stop bringing Night On The Bare Mountain to mind.

I became familiar with these two at the same time.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I've never been much of a Saint Saëns fan but I heard Danse Macabre as a little kid and the melodies and feelings it evokes have always captivated me. It's a fun piece and a great way to introduce kids to classical music.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

it's a great little chestnut which is harder to play than a lot of conductors think. The horns have to know their stuff and the bassoon parts have some wickedly tricky parts, too. Last year at a Halloween concert we did it twice: on the first half of the show we did the original vocal version which the conductor orchestrated. Then after intermission came the familiar orchestra version. Interesting. It doesn't lack for excellent recordings. Dutoit, Ormandy, Stokowski...they're all good.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Count me in as a fan - I tend to like any classical music that is creepy or phantasmagorical.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I didn't know about the vocal version. Any recommended recordings?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

starthrower said:


> I didn't know about the vocal version. Any recommended recordings?


The original is for piano and voice. I'm sure there are recordings of Saint-Saens songs but I don't collect that genre.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

starthrower said:


> I didn't know about the vocal version. Any recommended recordings?


Scroll above where I link to the orchestrated version of the song.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

It jumped very high in rankings of the Classic FM during the pandemic. Excellent underscore for the newsreels of the period.


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