TOTENTANZ - KARG-ELERT (Jonathan Scott - MUSTEL HARMONIUM)

Totentanz Op. 70 No.2 by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) Performed by Jonathan Scott on a 1908 Art Harmonium by Mustel, Paris (Serial Number 1924 - 1057) at Victoria Hall, Saltaire. From the collection of Pam & Phil Fluke, Harmonium Museum, Saltaire. Totentanz (Dance of Death) is the second of two 'Orchestral Studies' for Art Harmonium written by Karg-Elert in 1907. It is based on the following verse: DANCE OF DEATH A vision. Death as a musician. On a bone harmonica he plays a bizarre dance, every now and then making a pause and a scornful laughing and grimacing. The dancers spin in grotesque rhythms, sometimes orgiastic, wild,sometimes shadowy and transfigured. The dance scatters. Quietly from the invisible depths lament the voices of the departed. A child, a virgin, a young man, a man. Their laments go unheard in the awful loneliness. Once again the musician clearly raises the horrific bone harmonica. The dance begins again. A clap of thunder - and the nightmare is over. (Translation from the German by Jonathan Scott) Please visit: http://www.jonathanscott.co.uk