Death Waltz refers to two separate entities: an American folktale dating back to the nineteenth century in Fort Union, New Mexico, and a piece of music written for the piano with the title “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from ‘A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich’)” (1980). While the folk tale is of unknown origin, the piano piece was composed by John Stump. Both deal with the notion of music and dance as well as the death motif, hence the very fitting title. However, the way these two traditions express this motif is strikingly different. The folktale reaches a climax with a waltz in which a supposedly dead soldier kills his former fiancée; the piano piece is considered to be absurdist nonsense, and most who have written about it consider it a parody of musical composition.
The American folktale “The Death Waltz,” as told by S. E. Schlosser, recounts the story of an unknown first-person narrator who is deployed to Fort Union and becomes friends with the main character, Johnny. It did not take long before Johnny told him that he was in love with Celia, the sister-in-law of the captain. Celia is very popular among the men in Fort Union, and Johnny goes from being ecstatic when she speaks to him to absolutely miserable when she flirts with other men. The narrator took an instant dislike to her, thinking she was “too much of a flirt.”
After a couple of weeks at Fort Union, Johnny and Celia danced all night at a birthday party until a messenger stormed in and gave news of an Apache raid. Celia did not want Johnny to leave, even though he was the lieutenant in command, so he proposed to her on the spot. She accepted his proposal and promised to wait for his return. If he were not to return, she promised never to marry. The narrator and Johnny were in the same troop and left together, but their two groups split up. When the groups rejoined at the meeting point, Johnny was missing and presumed dead, but they did not find his body.
Celia made a big scene upon hearing the news, but her grief lasted only a week, and within a month she became engaged to another lieutenant. They threw a big wedding and later had a celebratory ball. While everybody was waltzing, the door was flung open with a crash. In the doorway “there was the swollen, dead body of a soldier,” with eyes that burned like fire, and no scalp. “It was Johnny.” He took the bride into his arms and made the musicians play a “horrible, demonic sounding waltz.” While they danced, Celia slowly died in his arms. He then dropped her to the floor and vanished. The narrator now pleaded with the captain to have a search party for Johnny. They found him in a crevice, his body looking exactly the same as it had at the ball. They took him back to the fort and buried him next to Celia. A few days later the narrator left Fort Union, not being able to stay at that forsaken place any longer. Legend has it that Celia’s ghost is seen wailing over Johnny’s grave, but the narrator never went back to affirm this legend.
The piano piece “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from ‘A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich’)” also has a demonic-sounding tone to it, as did the waltz Johnny and Celia supposedly danced to. Not much is known about this piece of music besides the name of its composer, John Stump. Stump claimed on the music sheet that it was “arranged by accident.” It is a tribute to Czech composer Zdenko Fibich. “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz” almost looks like a drawing and not an actual piece of music, since there are so many notes that they form shapes and lines. It is to be played “adagio cantabile with a rock tempo feel.” Stump, who wrote several pieces that are meant to ridicule elaborate pieces of music, took the tempo instruction adagio cantabile from Beethoven’s piano sonata No. 8. He also included nonsense instructions in the score. Such notations called for the player to “release the penguins” or to “have a good day” in the midst of his elaborate note scheme. The fast pace and many notes gives it a slightly creepy sound, but nevertheless, there is a clear, underlying melody. The side notes enhance the ridiculous character of the piece. In many ways Stump’s composition has developed its own legend, with writers commenting on its bizarre and complicated structure and musical notations.
John Stump’s Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (1980) are said to be tributes to the Czech composer Zdenko Fibich (1850–1900), depicted in this portrait from around 1890. An absurdist and parodic composition, the tempo and tone of this piece of music nevertheless offers some resonance with the demonic dancing described in The Death Waltz folktale. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Annekathrin Sölter
See also Dancing with the Devil; Pata de Gallo
Further Reading
“John Stump, Composer of Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz.” 2010. Lost in the Cloud blog. March 13. http://lostinthecloudblog.com/2010/03/13/john-stump-composer-of-faeries-aire-and-death-waltz/. Accessed October 29, 2015.
Lucarelli, Fosco. 2012. “The Unplayable Score: Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz—John Stump.“ SOCKS website. May 19. http://socks-studio.com/2012/05/19/the-unplayable-score-faeries-aire-and-death-waltz-john-stump/. Accessed June 2, 2015.
Schlosser, S. E. 2014. Death Waltz. A New Mexico Ghost Story. December 14. http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_death_waltz.html. Accessed June 1, 2015.
Skinner, Charles M. 2003. “The Death Waltz.” Legends of America website. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-deathwaltz.html. Accessed October 29, 2015.