Composed 1874; 7:30 minutes

Camille Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre (1874) began life as one of the French composer’s songs to a macabre poem by Henri Cazalis. The composer soon transformed it into one of the most vivid orchestral showpieces of the late 19^th century. At midnight on Halloween, Death appears, as the hour tolls before summoning skeletons from their graves. A solo violin with a sinister bite leads their rattling dance, while whirling strings spin the grotesque revelry ever onward. At dawn the spell breaks…and the dead retreat to silence.