Symphonie Fantastique Analysis

Symphonie Fantastique, Hector Berlioz
By carefully listening to the first movement of the symphonic work, this could be a work all on its own. Berlioz really did a fantastic job by incorporating all the sort of feelings a man in love gets by seeing the love of his life for the first time. “Reveries – Passions” is the title of the first movement, which depicts the feelings of tenderness, sad, crazy, and passionate, all through this one device, idee fixe. The idee fixe technique is used to bring out the theme of the piece several times in different characteristics to attain the various feelings for Berlioz throughout his work. In just the first movement, the theme came out at least three different times in various points of the piece. One of my favorite sections of the first movement had to be after the repeated section, the strings move in contour, up and down exactly a halfstep each time in order to reach a
I believe it is in rondo form for the theme keeps coming out, as a sort of ABACADA type of movement. Now, I can see why this symphonic work is one of the best out there; it really requires a great ensemble. I feel this last piece was in fact a good replication of how Berlioz in the end felt for Harriet and how their marriage was a terrible disaster years later. But there was perhaps speculation on whenever or not Berlioz was an Opium addict and that these last two movements really depicted how he felt. Nevertheless, it was a great piece and always a pleasure to listen; I can now understand why this movement is a required standard orchestral repertoire. That twenty bar phrase of just sixteenth notes and sextuplets, has to be devastating and also requires a lot of attention. Oh, and you might want to have a cheap bow if you are a string player; you do not want to ruin the wood on a good bow in the section that says, frappez avec le bois de