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Danse Macabre

Life And Death
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A death dance in which mortality claims people of every rank. It emphasizes death's universal power.

Detailed Definition
Danse macabre, or the dance of death, is a medieval motif in which Death leads people from every social station in a dance toward the grave. Kings, clergy, laborers, children, and lovers may appear together, their distinctions erased by mortality. In poetry, the motif can be grotesque, comic, solemn, or satirical. It often reminds readers that wealth, status, and authority cannot protect anyone from death's arrival.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a danse macabre, Death may lead kings, beggars, children, and priests in the same dance, emphasizing that social rank cannot prevent death; Medieval danse macabre images inspired poems in which skeletons summon the living one by one from a crowded town; Thomas Hood’s “The Dance of Death” uses a grimly animated vision of death moving among people; A poet could write a danse macabre in which commuters become dancing skeletons at midnight in an empty railway station
Additional Notes
Medieval artworks often show a skeleton leading figures such as kings, clergy, and peasants, stressing that social rank cannot defeat death.
Also Known As
Dance of Death Dance Macabre
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