Danse Macabre: the waltz theme in Tonic Solfa
Danse Macabre, the waltz theme by Camille Saint-Saëns, in Tonic Solfa (doh is Bb): the solfa line by line, staff notation and a piano to sing along with.
Download the solfa (PDF)A4, free to print and share with your choir
- Key
- G minor
- Doh
- Bb
- Time
- 3/4
- Starts on
- m (D)
- Range
- m to d' (D to B♭, a sixth)
- Music
- Camille Saint-Saëns
Tune Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| m- | l---l- | s---s- | sa---sa- | f---f- |
| m-fe-l- | se-fe-m- | fe---fe- | se-__m- |
| l---l- | s---s- | sa---sa- | f---f- |
| m-l-d'- | t-se-m- | se---fe- | m--- |
The solfa line by line
The same solfa as plain text, easy to copy into your own notes or a WhatsApp message to the choir. To print it, download the solfa as a PDF.
Doh is Bb · 3/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in G minor.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
About the tune
Camille Saint-Saëns wrote Danse macabre, Op. 40, in 1874, after a poem by Henri Cazalis: at midnight Death plays his fiddle in the graveyard and the skeletons dance until the cock crows at dawn. The harp strikes twelve, and the solo violin plays with its top string tuned down to E flat.
This is the waltz tune that falls by half steps, G, F, E, E flat, D, read from Théodore Ritter's piano transcription of the piece (Paris: Durand & Schoenewerk): its pickup and the sixteen bars that follow. The piano has it with chords; this page has the tune alone, and its last note is held to close it, where the dance goes straight on.
- Music (1874): Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.
Questions about Danse Macabre
What is the doh of Danse Macabre?
In this version, in G minor, doh is Bb. If your choir sings it in another key, doh moves to the new key note and every solfa syllable stays the same — that is what movable doh means.
What note does Danse Macabre start on?
It starts on m (D in G minor), a pickup before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
Is Danse Macabre in the public domain?
Yes. Camille Saint-Saëns died in 1921; the tune was first published in 1875. Everyone named died before 1955 and it was published before 1929, so the tune is out of copyright in Nigeria, the UK, the EU and the United States. Modern arrangements of it can still be under copyright.