November 13, 2012 Symphonie Fantastique In the early Romantic period of music, a young composer named Hector Berlioz

began to compose his masterpiece Symphonie Fantastique. His piece is a programmatic symphony with five movements, each one represents a different part of his program notes that he wrote to go along with the symphony. Every movement has different qualities and techniques used to represent the situation the main character is put into. Berlioz also uses a musical concept known as an ide fixe which is an idea or theme interjected into each of the movements. The story is depicted throughout the masterpiece and the story also parallels and, in some cases, foreshadows Berliozs life. Berlioz begins his symphony with his first movement called Rveries, passions. . It opens with a theme from his Memoires. At the age of 12, Berlioz fell for an older woman named Estelle Duboeuf who lived in the same town as him. He never was taken seriously by her because of the age difference between the two. He wrote a sorrowful song for her after and based the opening of his symphony around that theme. Later in his life, Berlioz attended a performance of Romeo and Juliet and fell for Harriet Smithson, the lead actress who was playing Juliet. The program notes Berlioz wrote, for his symphony, are about the main character falling in love with a woman who he has dreamed of for a long time. Whenever the ide fixe shows up in the first movement, the main characters mind has once again wandered into thinking about his beloved. The theme of a longing for a special woman parallels with Berliozs life. The story is represented in the first movement by its hints of melancholy moments, joyful spurts and many other emotions.

The second movement is called Un Bal (A Ball). It is counted in 3 and is a waltz but is similar to a rondo. The movement has the two harps lead in the dance with descending runs. The scene portrayed in the story is at a ball, where the main character cannot stop thinking about his beloved. He tries to get her attention but she does not realize he is exists. When Symphonie Fantastique was first performed, Berlioz saved the best seat in the house for his obsession, Harriet Smithson. He had certain numbers of people play each part and set up the orchestra so the spot reserved for her experienced the best quality of the symphony. She did not come and he was ignored similarly to his character he wrote about. The ide fixe is played several times in this movement representing the main characters thoughts. Berlioz could not keep his mind off of Harriet. This movement shows how he thinks of her everywhere, even with the busyness of a dance going on. The third movement is called Scne aux champs (Scene in the Country). The movement has the ide fixe of a shepherds horn being played across a field. Berlioz used to hear this call being played all the time in the era he lived. The movement has lots of calls and answers throughout the inception. The story that is supposed to be painted with the music is where the main character is walking along and hears two shepherds using their horn as he thinks about his beloved. He feels isolated and lonely. He is worried that she does not share the same affection that he does. This once again parallels Berliozs life. Since Harriet did not attend his first performance, he probably began to lose hope in his relationship with her. Berlioz used his symphony as an outcry of his love and basically wrote about himself in his program notes. The fourth movement, Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold), adds a new element of chaos to the symphony. According to Berliozs program notes, the main character, caught up in despair, takes a nonlethal dosage of opium and plunges him into a deep sleep with extremely

bizarre hallucinations. He has a nightmare of himself getting arrested for the murder of his loved one. As the soldiers march him to the guillotine, the snare drums are not actually present in the orchestra at that point. Instead, the string section has a pattern of rhythms to simulate the same effect a snare drum would when marching. The piece grows more excited as the tension and dread grows in the character being marched to the guillotine. Towards the end of the piece, the ide fixe by a clarinet can be heard as the main character thinks about his lover one last time. Then an accent is hit throughout the entire band symbolizing the blade of the guillotine dropping and decapitating the main character. His head rolls down the stairs with some exposed strings pizzicato. The whole orchestra becomes a roaring crowd for the last few measures of the movement. Hector apparently saw some sanity in the main characters decision to try to poison himself with opium. He was able to marry Harriet by poisoning himself with a lethal amount of opium and asking Will you marry me? When she agreed to his proposal, he quickly took out an antidote he had in his jacket and cured himself. Berlioz acted irrationally on love, but his actions show how desperately he wanted to be with Harriet. His fifth movement is called Songe dune Nuit du Sabbat (Dream of a Witches Sabbath) and it is quite an oddity. This movement is the most chaotic and sinister in the entire symphony. The program notes are about the main character still being caught in his hallucination. He is observing his funeral and all the visitors there. Many monsters, ghosts and sorcerers attend and take part in a mass orgy, eventually including a witch version of his beloved. Unusual noises, groans, and cries call and answer throughout the movement. The beloved melody appears again but is squeaked out by the woodwinds in a mocking manner. There are lots different techniques that are used in the inception of the movement to make the tones of the instruments unpleasant but still fitting the style. Around the middle of the movement, three chimes in a row can be

heard: the common rhythmic pattern for church bells after someone dies. Following that section, a fugue breaks out with chaos still but a tad more orderly than the movement previously was. According to Michael Tilson Thomas, in the last few bars of the movement, the main characters beloved woman screams over his casket Hector is going to hell! Hector is going to hell! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! The story is disgustingly sad. The main character just wanted to be with his beloved, but instead went through hallucinations of her death and laughing at his. Although slightly disturbing, the piece comes to an end. Berliozs symphony follows the program that he wrote and also parallels his life. The first movement is about a longing for a woman which he experienced around the age of 12 and later when he fell for Harriet Smithson. The second movement is a waltz about the main character trying to attract the attention of a woman which is exactly what Berlioz tried to do with Harriet Smithson. The third movement is about the main character unable to keep his mind from wandering into thinking about his beloved just as Berlioz was. The fourth movement is about the main character taking a lethal dosage of opium and hallucinating, which humorously foreshadows Berliozs proposal. The fifth movement is about the main characters funeral, turns into a fugue, and concludes the symphony depressingly. Despite all of the darkness and sinister themes within his masterpiece, Berliozs symphony is still performed by modern symphonies in this age.

Bibliography Austin, Michel. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.hberlioz.com/Scores/sfantastique.htm> Berlioz, Hector. "Program Notes To Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique."http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/music/berlioz/berlioz.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/music/berlioz/berlioz.pd>. Thomas, Michael T., narr. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. 2009. PBS. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/keepingscore/video-berlioz.html>