Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens arr. Brian Slawson

The xylophone part from Camille Saint-Saëns’s orchestral work Danse Macabre is one of the most famous excerpts for the instrument. (It also enjoys a broader familiar thanks to its similarity to the xylophone theme in the “Fossils” movement of Carnival of the Animals.) The violin and clarinet parts, among others, also feature memorable themes, many of which have been arranged here for percussion ensemble. The xylophone takes the prominent melodic voice while the rest of the ensemble adds color around it, creating a mysterious mood befitting a dance of skeletons on Halloween night.

Danse Macabre comes as a full, bound score and includes a CD-ROM containing individual parts and a recording.