Danse Macabre

This article is about La Danse Macabre, the late-medieval allegory. For other meanings of Danse Macabre or Dance of Death, see Danse Macabre (disambiguation).

The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Liber chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel.

Dance of Death, also variously called Danse Macabre (French), Danza Macabra (Italian) or Totentanz (German), is a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death: no matter one's station in life, the dance of death unites all. La Danse Macabre consists of the personified death leading a row of dancing figures from all walks of life to the grave—typically with an emperor, king, youngster, beautiful girl, all skeletal. They were produced to remind people of how fragile their lives were and how vain the glories of earthly life were. Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts; the earliest artistic examples are in a cemetery in Paris from 1424.

Paintings

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Triumph of Death (c.1562) in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Brueghel was strongly influenced by the style of Hieronymus Bosch.

La Danse macabre (Abbot and Bailiff). Paris, Guy Marchant, 1486

The earliest artistic example is from the frescoed cemetery of the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris (1424). There are also works by Konrad Witz in Basel (1440), Bernt Notke in Lübeck (1463) and woodcuts designed by Hans Holbein the Younger and executed by Hans Lützelburger (1538).

The deathly horrors of the 14th Century—such as recurring famines, the Hundred Years' War in France and, most of all, the Black Death—were culturally digested throughout Europe. The omnipresent possibility of sudden and painful death increased the religious desire for penitence, but it also evoked a hysterical desire for amusement while still possible, a last dance as a cold comfort. The danse macabre combines both desires: similar to the popular mediaeval mystery plays, the dance-with-death allegory was originally a didactic play to remind people of the inevitability of death and to advise them strongly to be prepared all times for death (see memento mori).

The earliest examples of such plays, which consisted of short dialogs between Death and each of its victims, can be found in the direct aftermath of the Black Death in Germany, where it was known as the Totentanz, but also in Spain as la Danza de la Muerte. The French term danse macabre most likely derives from Latin Chorea Machabæorum, literally "dance of the Maccabees". 2 Maccabees, a deuterocanonical book of the Bible in which the grim martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons is described, was a well-known mediaeval subject. It is possible that the Maccabean Martyrs were commemorated in some early French plays or that people just associated the book’s vivid descriptions of the martyrdom with the interaction between Death and its prey. Both the play and the evolving paintings were ostensive penitential sermons which even illiterate people (who were the overwhelming majority) could understand.

Furthermore, church frescoes dealing with death had a long tradition and were widespread, e.g. the legend of the three men and the three dead: On a ride three young gentlemen meet the skeletal remains of three of their ancestors who warn them: Quod fuimus, estis; quod sumus, vos eritis (What we were, you are; what we are, you will be). Numerous if often simple fresco versions of that legend from the 13th century onwards have survived (for instance in the hospital church of Wismar). Since they were showing pictorial sequences of men and skeletons covered with shrouds those paintings can be regarded as cultural precursors of the new genre.

A danse macabre painting normally shows a round dance headed by Death. From the highest ranks of the mediaeval hierarchy (usually pope and emperor) descending to its lowest (beggar, peasant and child) each mortal’s hand is taken by a skeleton or an extremely decayed body. The famous Totentanz in Lübeck’s Marienkirche (destroyed by an Allied bomb raid in WW II) presented Death very lively and agile, making the impression that the skeletons were actually dancing, whereas their dancing partners looked clumsy and passive. The apparent class distinction in almost all of these paintings is completely neutralized by Death as the ultimate equalizer, so that a sociocritical element is subtly inherent to the whole genre: The Totentanz of Metzin for instance shows how a pope crowned with his tiara is being led into hell by the dancing Death.

Generally, a short dialog is attached to each victim in which Death is summoning him or her to dance, and the summoned is moaning about the near death. In the first printed Totentanz textbook (Anon.: Vierzeiliger oberdeutscher Totentanz, Heidelberger Blockbuch, approx. 1460), Death addresses e.g. the emperor:

Her keyser euch hilft nicht das swert

Czeptir vnd crone sint hy nicht wert

Ich habe euch bey der hand genomen

Ir must an meynen reyen komen

Emperor, your sword won’t help you out

Sceptre and crown are worthless here

I’ve taken you by the hand

For you must come to my dance

At the bottom end of the Totentanz Death calls e.g. the peasant to dance and he answers:

Ich habe gehabt [vil arbeit gross]

Der sweis mir du[rch die haut floss]

Noch wolde ich ger[n dem tod empfliehen]

Zo habe ich des glu[cks nit hie]

I had to work very much and very hard

The sweat was running down my skin

I’d like to escape death nonetheless

But here I won’t have any luck

Bernt Notke: Totentanz in St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn

Printing

The earliest known depiction of a print shop appears in a printed image of the Dance of Death, in 1499, in Lyon, by Mattias Huss. It depicts a compositor at his station, which is raised to facilitate his work; and a person running the press. To the right of the print shop an early book store is shown. Early print shops were gathering places for the literati.

Musical settings

Musical examples include

• The Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, 1874
• Mattasin oder Toden Tanz, 1598, by August Nörmiger
• Totentanz by Franz Liszt, 1849, a set of variations based on the plainchant melody Dies Irae.
• Песни и пляски смерти (Songs and Dances of Death), 1875 – 1877 by Modest Mussorgsky
• Symphony No. 4, 2nd Movment by Gustav Mahler, 1901
• Totentanz, Oratorium, 1905 by Felix Woyrsch
• Totentanz der Prinzipien, 1914 by Arnold Schoenberg
• Ein Totentanz (Dance of Death) Op. 37 for piano and orchestra, 1931 by Wilhelm Kempff
• The Green Table (Der grüne Tisch), 1932 ballet by Kurt Jooss
• Scherzo (Dance of Death), Op.14. In: Ballad of heroes, 1939 by Benjamin Britten
• Trio in E-minor Op. 67, 4th movement "Dance of Death", 1944 by Dmitri Shostakovich
• Totentanz, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, 1944 by Viktor Ullmann
• Zombie Jamboree, 1958 by the Kingston Trio, which they state is based upon a theme by Goethe involving the dance of the dead. The song had been originally performed by a number of Calypso artists.
• Dance of Death, 1964 by John Fahey, a fingerstyle guitar solo in G minor tuning. An excerpt was used in the film Zabriskie Point.
• Dance With Death, 1968 by Andrew Hill
• Black Angels, 1971 by George Crumb - Contains a danse macabre at the end of part one, Departure.
• Dancing with Mr. D, 1973 by the Rolling Stones
• Ballo in Fa diesis minore (F♯m), 1977 by Angelo Branduardi
• Danse Macabre, 1984 by Celtic Frost
• Danse Macabre, 1994 by Symphony X
• Totentanz, 1996 by In Extremo
• Danse macabre, 1996 by Jaromir Nohavica
• La Danse Macabre, 1996 by Memento Mori
• The Danse Macabre, 1997 by Hecate Enthroned
• Danzon Macabre, 1999 by Kennan Wylie - marching percussion feature
• Danse Macabre, 2000 by Decapitated
• Danse Macabre, 2001 by The Faint
• La Grande Danse Macabre, 2001 by Marduk
• Dance Macabre, 2002, by Cradle of Filth
• La Danse Macabre du Vampire, 2002 by Theatres des Vampires, a track of Suicide Vampire
• Der makabere tanze des vampires, 2002 by Theatres des Vampires, a bonus track of Suicide Vampire in German
• Dance Of Death, 2003 by Iron Maiden
• Danse Macabre (ダンスマカブラ), 2004 by Plastic Tree
• Danse Macabre, 2005 by Wintersleep
• Danse Macabre, 2007 by illScarlett

See also

• Ars moriendi
• Memento mori
• Vanitas
• Macabre
• Death (Tarot card)
• Skeleton (undead)
• The Skeleton Dance
• Dancing mania

References

• James M. Clark. The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 1950.
• Israil Bercovici. O sută de ani de teatru evriesc în România ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998). ISBN 973-98272-2-5.
• André Corvisier. Les danses macabres, Presses Universitaires de France, 1998. ISBN 2-13-049495-1.
• Rich illustrated Latin translation of the Danse macabre, late 15th century. treasure 4 National Library of Romania

External links

• A collection of historical images of the Danse Macabre at Cornell's The Fantastic in Art and Fiction
• Holbein's Totentanz
• A collection of 400 paintings of the Dance of Death with the lyrics of Henri Cazalis and the music of Saint Saens at Uzi Dornai's Web Site.
• Photos from a modern performance of Antonie Svoboda and Mirek Vodrážka in May 2001 in Prague at Hynek Semecký web site.