Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique

Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique Hector Berlioz was a Romantic French composer who lived 1803-1869. His works are good examples of program music (music that tells a story). Symphonie Fantastique musically tells the story of an artist gifted with a lively imagination who has poisoned himself with opium in the depths of despair because of hopeless love. There are no words sung or spoken (only instruments playing), so Berlioz wrote the name and description of each movement in the program for the audience.

The “Program” of Symphonie Fantastique Mvt 1 “Reveries – Passions”: A young artist first sees a beautiful woman and falls deeply in love with her. He experiences tidal waves of conflicting emotions. (Throughout the work, the woman is represented by the idée fixe.) http://youtu.be/Mvh1gpdxCv0 Mvt 2 “A Ball”: The artist attends a ball, yet in all the commotion he remains obsessed with the woman. Mvt 3 “Scene in the Fields”: The artist goes for a walk in the country and feels more hopeful for a while. But then he thinks about her betraying him and he thoughts turn very dark.

The “Program” of Symphonie Fantastique Mvt 4 “March to the Scaffold”: In despair, the artist OD’s on opium and dreams that he is being led to his execution on the guillotine for murdering his beloved. Crowds cheer on as he is decapitated. Mvt 5 “Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath”: A hideous crowed of shades, sorcerers and monsters gather to celebrate the artist’s funeral. A grotesque version of his beloved comes to dance with the witches, to a corrupted version of the Requiem chant Dies Irae.

Background In 1827 Berlioz went to see Shakespeare’s Hamlet and fell in love with the English actress that played Ophelia, Harriet Smithson. He wrote her countless love letters but she never responded. Berlioz wrote Symphonie Fantastique to express the unrequited love he felt for her. Symphonie Fantastique was first performed at the Paris Conservatory in 1830. It has been very popular since then and was an influential early-Romantic piece. Finally, in 1832 Harriet heard Symphonie Fantastique and decided to marry Berlioz. They had one child, but their marriage quickly turned bitter.

“March to the Scaffold” “Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. As he cries for forgiveness the effects of the narcotic set in. He wants to hide but he cannot so he watches as an onlooker as he dies. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow when his head bounced down the steps.” (Berlioz’s Program Notes)

“March to the Scaffold” Listen for: “Condemning” timpani at the beginning Bass trombone blasting its lowest note during the loud march Idée fixe (artist thinks of his beloved) right before the “chop!” The decapitated head bouncing – pizzicato strings The cheering and snarling crowd throughout https://youtu.be/QwCuFaq2L3U