Danse Macabre Symphonic Poem, Symphonic Band

For the Danse Macabre, Saint-Saëns turned to the ´Dance of the Death´, which appears in various versions in the Art of the later Middle Ages. Saint-Saëns evokes (using the xylophone) the midnight cavorting of skeletons in a churchyard, interrupted by the first crowing of the cock announcing the dawn.