{"id":1188,"date":"2020-10-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/?p=1188"},"modified":"2021-10-07T20:57:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T02:57:19","slug":"the-violin-a-devilish-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/br\/2020\/10\/28\/the-violin-a-devilish-instrument\/","title":{"rendered":"The Violin: A Devilish Instrument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Me as Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeath at midnight plays a dance-tune, zig, zig, zig, on his violin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDanse Macabre\u201d by Henri Cazalis (French symbolist poet: 1840-1909)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The haunting month of Halloween is upon us, and I couldn\u2019t help but revisit my favorite ghostly violin music. Over the past couple of centuries the violin has had it\u2019s bout with the devil, from Berlioz\u2019 Symphanie Fantastique (1830) and Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 Danse Macabre (1874), to Mussorsky\u2019s Night on Bald Mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out my Halloween music playlist<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019s Danse Macabre<\/a> is the quintessential Halloween work, as it celebrates the \u201cDance of Death\u201d which we all must undergo eventually. The \u201cDanse Macabre\u201d was first depicted in Medieval French art during an era when Europeans frequently endured gruesome deaths due to war and plague. In Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 19th century rendition, the violin soloist plays the part of \u201cDeath,\u201d who calls the dead to rise at the stroke of midnight on Halloween night. The violin, which we often associate with beauty and lyricism, begins its eerie dance using the diabolic tritone, or \u201cdevil\u2019s interval.\u201d In order to accomplish this feat, the soloist tunes the E string down to an Eb to clash with the open A string. The skeletons end their night of frenzied revelry when they hear the rooster crow, announcing the break of dawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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