Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique
at the age of 27. He based the
program on his own impassioned life and
transferred his memoirs into his best-
known program symphony. The story is
about a love sick, depressed young artist,
while in his despair poisons
himself with opium. His beloved is represented
throughout the symphony by the
symbolic idee fixe. There are five movements
throughout symphony. The program
begins with the 1st movement: Reveries,
Passions symbolizing the artist’s
life prior to meeting his beloved. This is
represented as a mundaness and
indefinable searching or yearning, until
suddenly, he meets her and his
longing abruptly ceases and is replaced by
volcanic love. The soaring melody
becomes the Idee fixe and is introduced in
this section. The 2nd movement: A
Ball. This movement is representative of the
gala ball where he once again
sees his beloved. This section is a dance movement
in three-part form. The
Idee fixe reappears in waltz time. The 3rd movement:
Scene in the Fields.
This section represents a tranquil interval. It is a summer
evening in the
country and he hears two shepherds piping. The tranquil moment of
the quiet
summer evening alone with the pastoral duet fills his heart with
an
unfamiliar calm. Suddenly she appears and her appearance causes an
emotional
response of sorrowful loneliness. The 4th movement: March To the
Scaffold. He
dreams that he has killed his beloved, he is condemned to die
and is being lead
to the scaffold. At the end of this movement the Idee fixe
reappears for a short
instance and the reappearance becomes symbolic of the
last thought of love that
is interrupted by the axe. The 5th movement: Dream
of a Witch’s Sabbath. He
imagines himself at a witch’s Sabbath surround by
ghastly spirits who have
gathered for his funeral. The frightful sounds of
groans, shrieks, and shrill
laughter echo in his ears. Then, suddenly again
the Idee fixe appears. It is his
beloved. But the familiar Idee fixe is no
longer the reserved and noble melody
of the prior movements. The Idee fixe
has now taken on new form and has become
vulgar and grotesque. She has come
to this diabolical orgy. The witches greet
her with howling joy and she joins
them in the demonic dance; Bells toll for the
Dead. Listening Guide 25 is
the 4th movement, March To the Scaffold: The
diabolical march is in minor and
the Idee fixe is heard in the last part of this
movement. The clarinet is the
instrument that represents the Idee fixe and at
the very end it is cut off by
a grievous fortissimo chord and then ends in a
hadean quintessence. Structure
The medium is a large orchestra, (flute, piccolo,
2 clarinets, 4 french
horns, 4 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 2
ophideiodes, 2
timpani, bass drum, bells, strings). The form is loose tenary
(A-B-A). The
movement is in 6 sections. It begins with the introduction of
ominous
drumbeats and muted brass. The introduction ends with an exploding
crescendo
of a base drum which immediately introduces the 2nd section of theme A
of low
strings in a slow cautious tempo, and is picked up by violins. Theme B
brass
and woodwinds enter and picks up the tempo of diabolical march tune.
The
opening section is then repeated. The 3rd or mid section is the
development
section. The tenary (B-A-B-A) Begins with theme B in brass, then
theme A
pizzicato strings, alternating again to B in Brass then Theme A. The
5th section
is Theme A in full orchestra in original form, then inverted,
(ascending scale).
The 6th section, the melody Idee fixe in clarinet, ("a
last thought of
love"), in "dolce assai e passionato", followed by loud chord
that cuts
off melody, significant of ("the fall of the axe"). The
introduction begins
with the distant sound of a steady beating drum that
seems to become louder.
The steady beat is a march It has a serious tone
with a non changing beat. The
melody of the march is flat and gives a sense
of impending dume. The brass
bursts in on the monotone drum beat and suddenly
takes over the melody and soars
in an ascending sound, reaching an apex and
creschendos and then subsides with
low strings carrying the melody in a
decending scale . There is a recapulation
of this ascending and descending
sound and then the viola and bassoon
unassumingly enter and slowly begin to
form there own quick little melody ,
totally unrelated to the grander melody
of the brass that maintains the deeper,
grander, slower background. At the
mid-section of this movement , it begins to
take on an abstract quality. The
theme becomes more developed here and Belois
employs the use of oppisite
extremes to relay the moods of a manic-depressive
state. He picks up the
tempo in full ochrestra in what seems to be allegro in a
grand triumphant
march and then adds a disjunct touch by sudden ly slowing the
tempo down in
low strings to a delilerate depressive crawl. A dissonance of the
melody is
heard when he adds a sczophrantic touch by adding the bizaar violin
plucks.
In the last section at the closing, the strings pick up at a frantic
pace
giving the feeling that a new moment of anxiety has arisen and then
suddenly,
all is quiet and the Idee fixe, the sweet melody of the clarinet is
heard .
Without warning the axe has fallen, the sweet clarinet melody is cut off
by
the crash of a symbol and then the coda. My Impression Harriet
Smithson
should be proud to have this symphonie written about her. The
symphonie
fantastique fourth movement relates a quality of energy that is
consistant with
inapropriate mood changes that can sometimes be captured when
in a dream-like
state. The march to the scafold begins to become disoriented
when rather then a
death march, it starts to develop a pompous overtone, and
become more or a grand
prominade, but this is part of the composer’s genous.
He composed the music to
what would be the disjunct qualities of a dream-like
state. This music relates
an abstractness that is symbolic of the mind in a
semi- conscious state.