The final section of this piece begins with an oboe playing a figure based on an E-flat major chord, to represent a rooster crowing at dawn.
The first version of this piece was a setting of the Henri Cazalis poem on which it is based, but it is the orchestral version that is most often performed today. The final section of this piece begins with an oboe playing a figure based on an E-flat major chord, to represent a rooster crowing at dawn. The piece opens with a harp striking the note D twelve times to represent a clock chiming midnight, which is followed by the entrance of the solo violin, whose scordatura tuning allows it to play an A-Eb tritone, or "Devil's Chord", on open strings. This piece marks the first use of the xylophone in Western music to represent dancing skeletons; and the composer would quote this device and its associated melody in the "Fossils" movement of one of his later pieces. For 10 points, this is what symphonic poem by Camille Saint-Saens, depicting the dance of the dead?
The first version of this piece was a setting of the Henri Cazalis poem on which it is based, but it is the orchestral version that is most often performed today.
{Danse Macabre}