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Symphonie
fantastique - Hector Berlioz
Born December 11, 1803, in La Cote-Saint-Andre, France.
Died March 8, 1869, in Paris
The work is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, four bassoons,
four horns, two cornets, two trumpets, three trombones,
two tubas, battery, timpani, harp, and strings. The
original scoring called for two ophicleides and serpent,
both now-obscure bass instruments. Symphonie fantastique
was given its premiere on Sunday, December 5, 1830 at
the Paris Conservatoire with Francois-Antoine Habeneck
conducting.
One of the cornerstones of Romantic
music, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was written
in 1830 by a twenty-seven year old innovator. Composed
only three years after the death of Beethoven, there
are moments - especially in the final movement - when
the orchestral effects sound far removed from the earlier
master and closer to those used by twentieth-century
composers. He occasionally calls for muted strings and
nearly every experimental bowing technique then in existence.
Particularly notable is the ghostly sound produced by
the violins playing with the wood of the bow (col legno)
against the strings near the beginning of the final
movement. In this symphony, Berlioz became the first
composer to specify which mallets the timpanist should
use. His choice of sponge-headed mallets produced a
softer, subdued sound. Because Berlioz was a guitarist
and did not play an orchestral instrument, he was uninhibited
by traditional playing techniques. That the Symphonie
fantastique was his first major work for orchestra often
goes unmentioned because the orchestration is masterfully
colorful and the finest craftsmanship is evident throughout.
This symphony, despite its universal
appeal, had its origins in the darkest recesses of Berlioz’s
fascination with a famous actress. In September of 1827,
Berlioz saw a performance of Hamlet with British thespian
Harriet Smithson as Ophelia. He immediately developed
a deep obsession for her. Over the next few years, Berlioz
composed the Symphonie fantastique, which serves modern
listeners as a chronicle of his obsessive state of mind.
Called ‘autobiographical’ by Berlioz, the work is divided
into five movements, all linked by a recurring theme
(the so-called idée fixe) that is transformed
for use in each movement, always representing the ‘beloved.’
The Symphonie traces the artist’s tormented
and obsessive infatuation with an unattainable love
interest. As his compulsion grows stronger, reality
begins to fade and a dreamlike, finally supernatural,
world unfolds before the listener’s ears. In music history’s
first example of a ‘program symphony,’ one that tells
a distinct story as supplied in the audience’s printed
program, Berlioz reveals his own struggle with unachievable
love by creating a work he hoped would cause her to
notice his infatuation. The five movements are as follows,
with Berlioz’s own description of the story:
I. Reveries - Passions: A young musician,
afflicted with that moral complaint which a celebrated
writer [Chateaubriand] calls "undirected emotionalism,"
sees the woman of his dreams and falls hopelessly in
love. Each time her image comes into his mind, it evokes
a musical thought [represented by an idee fixe] that
is impassioned in character, but also noble and shy,
as he imagines her to be.
II. A Ball: The artist finds himself in the swirl of
a party, but the beloved image appears before him and
troubles his soul.
III. Scene in the Country: In the distance, two shepherds
play a ranz des vaches in dialogue [solo oboe and English
horn]. The pastoral setting, the gentle evening breeze,
the hopeful feelings he has begun to have--all conspire
to bring to his spirit an unaccustomed calm, and his
thoughts take on a more cheerful cast. He hopes not
to be lonely much longer. But his happiness is disturbed
by dark premonitions. What if she is deceiving him!
One of the shepherds resumes his playing, but the other
makes no response.... In the distance, thunder. Solitude.
Silence.
IV. March to the Scaffold: Convinced that his love is
unrequited, the artist takes an overdose of opium. It
plunges him into a sleep accompanied by horrifying visions.
He dreams that he has killed his beloved, has been condemned
and led to the scaffold, and is witnessing his own execution.
The procession advances to a march that is now somber
and savage, now brilliant and solemn. At its conclusion
the idee fixe returns, like a final thought of the beloved
cut, off by the fatal blow.
V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath: He sees himself in the
midst of a frightful throng of ghosts, witches, monsters
of every kind, who have assembled for his funeral. Strange
noises, groans, bursts of laughter, distant cries. The
beloved melody again reappears, but it has lost its
modesty and nobilty; it is no more than a vulgar dance
tune, trivial and grotesque; it is she, coming to the
sabbath. A joyous roar greets her arrival.... She joins
in the devilish orgy.... A funeral knell, a parody of
the Dies irae. A sabbath round-dance. The Dies irae
and the round-dance are combined.
In an interesting footnote to Berlioz’s obsession with
Smithson, she found his advances threatening and avoided
him until an 1832 concert where she heard the work.
The two became engaged and were married the next year
- a not-always-happy union that lasted until her death
in 1854.
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