Danse macabre, Op. 40, is a tone poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. It premiered 24 January 1875. It is in the key of G minor. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis, based on the play Danza macàbra by Camillo Antona-Traversi.Boyd, Malcolm. "Dance of death", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 6 October 2015. In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a tone poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin part.
