Danse Macabre

In our current program, we focus on 19th and 20th-century French music, setting the spotlight on influential composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Darius Milhaud. We keep the instrumentation and tone color of the composers in mind while presenting the music in a new, modern, and progressive way. The diverse sound possibilities of percussion give our arrangements nuanced colors that allow the audience to discover new facets of the original work, which may have been hidden in the original instrumentation. Danse Macabre is particularly fascinating for its dark and eerie tone, embodying Saint-Saëns' genius in combining humor with the macabre. Originally written as a symphonic poem, the work paints a vivid picture of Death summoning skeletons to dance at midnight, the sound of the xylophone mimicking the rattling of bones. In our arrangement, the use of vibraphone and marimba adds new textures to this haunting theme, enhancing the mysterious and rhythmic energy of the piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyf8lzGLqeA