Danse Macabre, Op. 40

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From the composer:
"This piece is an anomaly in the still developing Edmund Welles Library of original compositions and arrangements for bass clarinet quartet. First of all, it is well known, even among the general population. Secondly, it is the work of a 19th century concert music composer, landing it firmly in the baroque/classical/romantic era-continuum from which no other Edmund Welles pieces have been thus far culled. However, Danse Macabre is also replete with certain stylistic characteristics that can be perceived throughout the last 17 years of Edmund Welles heavy chamber music compositions; rock, pop and metal arrangements; boogie woogie piano and gospel transcriptions; and Renaissance motet performances. These characteristics can be described as gravity, intensity, virtuosity, and adventure. Not only do the rhythmic intensity and catchy melodic figures build a bridge from Beethoven to rock music, but the thematic inspiration of death and Romantic horror fantasies directly foreshadows the core themes of the horror cinema of the early 20th century and, by extension, the core themes of the early hard rock and metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

Danse Macabre is certainly a musical mini-adventure, and more of my compositions have been generated or inspired by adventures and imagination than, say, abstract feelings or focused method application (although there are some exceptions). Certainly Saint-Saëns’ use of melody, rhythm and orchestration are creative and adventurous in this piece, but largely it is the form of this adventure that gives it such brilliance and effectiveness when presented to an audience. Therefore, the tempo, dynamic and voicing shifts should be approached with sincerity and a cinematic perspective while the momentum of the piece continues to build. According to the original score performance notes, the piece (composed in 1874) was inspired by the following poem by Henri Cazalis and is in 3 sections: Midnight and Death tunes his violin--Dance of Death--Daylight and the cock crows.

Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence,
Striking with his heel a tomb,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
Zig, zig, zig, on his violin.
The winter wind blows and the night is dark;
Moans are heard in the linden-trees.
Through the gloom, white skeletons pass,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.
Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
The bones of the dancers are heard to crack—
But hist! of a sudden they quit the round,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed."