Symphonie Fantastique Analysis
Symphonie Fantastique:
The Hopeless
Romantic 's Guide to
Nineteenth Century
Program Music
1
Inspired by the great philosophers, poets and storytellers of his day, Berlioz was one of the first composers who sought to merge drama and music into a single genre through the medium of his own creative and highly innovative soundscape. The result was a five movement orchestral masterpiece that is to this day still considered one of the most revolutionary works of the 19th century. The Symphonie Fantastique is an autobiographical work that illustrates "An Episode in the life of an Artist" to which the composer provides detailed program notes: A young man is overcome by his unreciprocated love and intakes a dose of opium with the intention …show more content…
of committing suicide.
The poison however, to weak to kill him, plunges him into a heavy slumber in which he experiences wild visions and hallucinations that Berlioz effectively depicts by breaking new ground on multiple musical levels. The Symphonie is built on the traditional symphonic structure but ultimately deviates from it by displacing the expected minuet or scherzo by a waltz for the second movement, and by the insertion of a solemn march as a fourth movement before the finale.1 Berlioz employs an entirely novel orchestral language by importing new instruments into the orchestra, using preexisting ones in a new symphonic setting, and requiring them to play in new combinations and in previously unexplored parts of their range.2 Each of the five movements calls for a different orchestral requirement, yet they are all held together cyclically by a unique structural device, the idée fixe, or idea of fixation.3 This recurring motivic theme is a musical representation of the Artist 's
Beloved (Real life Irish actress Harriet Smithson) that undergoes thematic transformation throughout the entire work to reflect the Artist 's conception of her at multiple stages of the story.
Berlioz manages to achieve vivid imagery and onomatopoeia through inherently simple sonic imitation, as a result of skillful exploitation and interplay of all these elements within a vast orchestral palette, alongside other means such as harmonic and dynamic effects, all of which will be discussed in further detail throughout the paper.
1Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 48.
2Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz (London: J. M. Dent, 1982), 92.
3Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 126.
2
First Movement: Rêveries – Passions
Berlioz took the utmost care in orchestrating the opening movement, which is structurally derived from the traditional first movement sonata form. He uses at least sixteen different orchestral combinations in the seventy-one measures of the slow Largo introduction that precedes the Allegro.4
At the start of the Allegro section the composer introduces the star feature of the Symphonie and his object of adulation, the Beloved Harriet. The idée that represents her is a forty measure long theme characterized by its obscured beat and irregular phrasings which is heard in the violins and flutes, painting in the subconscious of the listener the portrait of a bashfully gentle individual with a distinct air of nobility. The whole is brought to life by a thumping heartbeat in the lower strings that intensifies dynamically with the rising energy of the theme.5 The fact that the idée fixe is much longer in pitch content then a typical symphonic exposition theme is significant in two ways: Firstly it suggests the complexity and volatility of the object being portrayed, and secondly, it creates an abundance of melodic material with the potential to be reused.* The composer actively exploits these two ideas in combination as they become the basis of his developmental method of thematic transformation. The result is the appearance of the idée fixe in some guise in each of the five movements of the symphony. More importantly, the imagery and emotions that the idée aims to evoke foreshadow the various musical imitation and metaphors that will be heard throughout the work. The first movement ends on a plagal cadence, emphasizing the Artist 's conception of his ideal
Beloved and her virtuous nature.6
Second Movement: Un Bal
In this movement Berlioz adds two harps to the orchestra to brighten up its palette as well as to better project the spirit of the waltz.7 Berlioz 's orchestral writing here becomes much more
4Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 124.
5Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 10.
6A. E. F. Dickinson, The Music of Berlioz (London: Faber, 1972), 132.
7Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 128.
3 pronounced as he searches for the settings that will most aptly communicate his musical thoughts, and as a result the color and texture of a section becomes just as important as its pitch or rhythmic structure.8 The music of the second movement is in some regards even more programmatic then the first owing to the fact that its principal theme is a waltz melody that aims to embody the actual sound of the event that is being musically staged as opposed to its mood which had already been established by the waltz itself and through the title and program notes.9 The movement is in ABA form, with the idée fixe coming into focus in the central episode, transposed and adjusted to fit within the triple meter of the waltz as it steals the show for a brief moment before receding into the background.10 At this point Berlioz moves the idée into the distant key of F major (the tonic being A major) to portray the physical distance between the Artist and his lover, placing her beyond reach.11
Third Movement: Scène aux Champs
The pastoral movement opens with an imitative dialogue between an English horn and an oboe (at the octave) as a Ranz-des-Vaches between shepherds. Berlioz places the oboe offstage to create a strong echo effect, probably the first such use of an offstage instrument in a symphonic setting.12 The pastoral theme that ensues is an independent melody with a character of its own yet organically related to the idée fixe, which itself doesn 't take long to reappear as the Beloved intrudes into the thoughts of the Artist.13 The shepherd reappears again in the coda but this time is unanswered by the shepherdess. To further accentuate the feelings of solitude and melancholy evoked by the music, Berlioz employs four timpani (A highly unusual feat at the time) tuned to different pitches to form a minor triad, which emulate "distant thunder" through a twenty measure long passage of chordal rolls that brings the movement to its conclusion.14 This idea will be
8Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 124.
9Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 55.
10Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 40.
11A. E. F. Dickinson, The Music of Berlioz (London: Faber, 1972), 133.
12Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 129.
13Robert Simpson, The Symphony (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966), 217.
14Luiz E. Castelões, "A Catalogue of Music Onomatopoeia," International Review of the Aesthetics & Sociology of
4 borrowed years later by Debussy in the final moments of the first of his three orchestral Nocturnes,
Nuages.*
Fourth Movement: Marche au Supplice
Much as the second movement evokes the image of a grand ball through the use of a waltz, the fourth movement creates the mood of the procession to the scaffold by means of a rigid ceremonial march in which Berlioz displays yet again the ingenious diversity of tone, texture and color that characterizes his orchestral writing, coupled with remarkable contrapuntal skill.
The solemn mood is quickly established through a rhythmic pas-à-pas figure in the double basses and timpani (four as in the previous movement) that remains pervasive throughout the movement. A noteworthy feature of this introduction is its complete lack of upper range sonorities due to Berlioz 's choice of instrumentation, the result of which is a grim and barren sound that would not have been half as effective without the highly descriptive nature of his orchestra.15 The movement develops with a simple alternation of two themes until the coda is reached, in which Berlioz contrasts a D-flat major chord in the brass and woodwinds against a G minor chord in the strings. This tritone relationship portrays the angst of the moment as the Artist witnesses himself slowly approaching the gallows (later borrowed by Mussorgsky for the Coronation Scene of Boris Godunov).16 As the character finally reaches the scaffold, the idée fixe is brought in by the clarinet in a wistful moment of nostalgia, untransformed in its original form, only to be cut short by the falling blade of the guillotine as the tutti sounds a thunderous G minor chord. As an additional element of
gruesome pictorialism, Berlioz arpeggiates the chord again in pizzicato strings from highest to lowest in a triple figure, dramatically imitating the dropping of the severed head.17 This is followed by the typical post-execution drum roll. The fourth movement was so successful that it was encored at the
Symphonie 's premiere on the 5th of December 1830.18
Music 40/2 (2009), 329.
15Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 131.
16Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 56.
17Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 96.
18Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz (London: J. M. Dent, 1982), 21.
5
Fifth Movement: Songe d 'une Nuit de Sabbat
The Artist is now transported to a Witch 's sabbath to assist the ceremonials of his own funeral in a frighteningly macabre finale that demands more from the listener than any other movement. This is where Berlioz fully unfolds the sinister potential of his massive orchestra. The opening section relies heavily on its harmonic language to establish the mood as well as to foreshadow musical events that will conclude the symphony. It is constructed of continual diminished 7th chords that in addition to the ghastly effect of the scurrying figures and cackling noises they embody, create a strong sense of uncertainty in the listener and consequently obstruct all expectations or suggestions of a path for the music.19 The Allegro section opens with the arrival of the beloved who has come to partake of the diabolical festivities of the black mass. The once noble and dignified image has now been distorted in rhythm and color into a vulgarized dance on a squealing clarinet in the most drastic transformation of the idée fixe in the entire work.20 The composer proceeds to introduce a parody of the Dies Irae followed by a witches dance in fugal style, then a combination of both that he enhances with multiple color effects: Bassoons playing in their highest register to emphasize the element of parody; Offstage bells tolling a summoning to the underworld; Violins and violas playing an extended col legno technique to imitate the rattling of bones; A series of shrieking trills in the woodwinds.21 The result is a grotesque orgy of unearthly sonorities that continues to grow and intensify until the vigorous conclusion of the symphony on a tutti C major cadence.
Since it 's premiere in 1830, the Symphonie Fantastique has held a dominant position in the romantic orchestral repertoire and a unique one in the history of music as one of the few surviving program symphonies.22 And although it does not quite adhere to the traditional format of a classical
19Nicholas Donlevy, "The Symbolism of Evil in Berlioz 's Symphonie Fantastique," (2003) Open Access Dissertations and Theses, Paper 5941, 24.
20Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 57.
21Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 138–150.
22Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 133.
6 symphony, it is in all evidence constructed upon it. The Symphonie is unique not only in regards to its subject matter but also, and perhaps more importantly, because it endorses as its main musical substance orchestral and instrumental manipulation. As a child and teenager, Berlioz was never granted the opportunity to learn the piano which led him to instinctively adopt a more direct method of dealing with the orchestra:23 Unlike most composers who conceive a work first as a piano piece then attempt to orchestrate it, from the beginning Berlioz was forced to 'think ' orchestrally, and as a result the orchestra became his instrument, which he played the way others would play a piano or violin.24 Berlioz subconsciously applied this modus operandi in the composition of the Symphonie, an approach that greatly exemplifies itself through the intricate orchestral design that is omnipresent throughout*. In an important essay written in 1837 titled "On Imitation in Music", he clearly states that it is never his ultimate goal to paint pictures or tell stories in music, but rather to explore emotions.25 Berlioz sought to facilitate this task by employing rather traditional musical means. In a preface to his program notes he writes: "The composer’s intention has been to develop various episodes in the life of an artist, in so far as they lend themselves to musical treatment...".26 This demonstrates that Berlioz carefully selected "episodes" that were inherently qualified for musical representation in order for his orchestral language to ring through them as clearly and with as little ambiguity as possible into the ear of the listener, an undertaking he quite skillfully succeeds in through his use of widely understood musical archetypes such as marches, dances, and hymns as framework for his music. Two years after the premiere of the Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz wrote a sequel to it, Lélio, which continues the "events" of the symphony. Today it is overshadowed by the success of its predecessor.
* Personal interpretation
23Jacques Barzun, Berlioz and the Romantic Century (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950), 36.
24Robert Greenberg, The Symphony (Chantilly, VA: Teaching, 2004), 54.
25Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 54.
26Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 2.
7
Bibliography
Barzun, Jacques. Berlioz and the Romantic Century. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950.
Berlioz, Hector. Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy. New York: Dover Publications, 1984.
———, and Richard Strauss. Treatise on Instrumentation. New York: Dover, 1991.
Bloom, Peter, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000.
Castelões, Luiz E. "A Catalogue of Music Onomatopoeia." International Review of the Aesthetics &
Sociology of Music 40/2 (2009), 299–347.
Dickinson, A. E. F. The Music of Berlioz. London: Faber, 1972.
Donlevy, Nicholas. "The Symbolism of Evil in Berlioz 's Symphonie Fantastique" (2003). Open
Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5941.
Greenberg, Robert. The Symphony. Chantilly, VA: Teaching, 2004.
Macdonald, Hugh. Berlioz. London: J. M. Dent, 1982.
Simpson, Robert. The Symphony. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966.
Stedman, Preston. The Symphony. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992.
Thomas, Michael Tilson. "Music Fueled by Desire." http://www.keepingscore.org/interactive/pages/berlioz/orc-idee-fixe. 2011; accessed
November 2013.
Discography
Berlioz, Hector. Symphonie Fantastique. The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conducted by Riccardo Muti.
EMI CDC 7 47278 2, 1985. CD.
The Hopeless
Romantic 's Guide to
Nineteenth Century
Program Music
1
Inspired by the great philosophers, poets and storytellers of his day, Berlioz was one of the first composers who sought to merge drama and music into a single genre through the medium of his own creative and highly innovative soundscape. The result was a five movement orchestral masterpiece that is to this day still considered one of the most revolutionary works of the 19th century. The Symphonie Fantastique is an autobiographical work that illustrates "An Episode in the life of an Artist" to which the composer provides detailed program notes: A young man is overcome by his unreciprocated love and intakes a dose of opium with the intention …show more content…
of committing suicide.
The poison however, to weak to kill him, plunges him into a heavy slumber in which he experiences wild visions and hallucinations that Berlioz effectively depicts by breaking new ground on multiple musical levels. The Symphonie is built on the traditional symphonic structure but ultimately deviates from it by displacing the expected minuet or scherzo by a waltz for the second movement, and by the insertion of a solemn march as a fourth movement before the finale.1 Berlioz employs an entirely novel orchestral language by importing new instruments into the orchestra, using preexisting ones in a new symphonic setting, and requiring them to play in new combinations and in previously unexplored parts of their range.2 Each of the five movements calls for a different orchestral requirement, yet they are all held together cyclically by a unique structural device, the idée fixe, or idea of fixation.3 This recurring motivic theme is a musical representation of the Artist 's
Beloved (Real life Irish actress Harriet Smithson) that undergoes thematic transformation throughout the entire work to reflect the Artist 's conception of her at multiple stages of the story.
Berlioz manages to achieve vivid imagery and onomatopoeia through inherently simple sonic imitation, as a result of skillful exploitation and interplay of all these elements within a vast orchestral palette, alongside other means such as harmonic and dynamic effects, all of which will be discussed in further detail throughout the paper.
1Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 48.
2Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz (London: J. M. Dent, 1982), 92.
3Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 126.
2
First Movement: Rêveries – Passions
Berlioz took the utmost care in orchestrating the opening movement, which is structurally derived from the traditional first movement sonata form. He uses at least sixteen different orchestral combinations in the seventy-one measures of the slow Largo introduction that precedes the Allegro.4
At the start of the Allegro section the composer introduces the star feature of the Symphonie and his object of adulation, the Beloved Harriet. The idée that represents her is a forty measure long theme characterized by its obscured beat and irregular phrasings which is heard in the violins and flutes, painting in the subconscious of the listener the portrait of a bashfully gentle individual with a distinct air of nobility. The whole is brought to life by a thumping heartbeat in the lower strings that intensifies dynamically with the rising energy of the theme.5 The fact that the idée fixe is much longer in pitch content then a typical symphonic exposition theme is significant in two ways: Firstly it suggests the complexity and volatility of the object being portrayed, and secondly, it creates an abundance of melodic material with the potential to be reused.* The composer actively exploits these two ideas in combination as they become the basis of his developmental method of thematic transformation. The result is the appearance of the idée fixe in some guise in each of the five movements of the symphony. More importantly, the imagery and emotions that the idée aims to evoke foreshadow the various musical imitation and metaphors that will be heard throughout the work. The first movement ends on a plagal cadence, emphasizing the Artist 's conception of his ideal
Beloved and her virtuous nature.6
Second Movement: Un Bal
In this movement Berlioz adds two harps to the orchestra to brighten up its palette as well as to better project the spirit of the waltz.7 Berlioz 's orchestral writing here becomes much more
4Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 124.
5Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 10.
6A. E. F. Dickinson, The Music of Berlioz (London: Faber, 1972), 132.
7Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 128.
3 pronounced as he searches for the settings that will most aptly communicate his musical thoughts, and as a result the color and texture of a section becomes just as important as its pitch or rhythmic structure.8 The music of the second movement is in some regards even more programmatic then the first owing to the fact that its principal theme is a waltz melody that aims to embody the actual sound of the event that is being musically staged as opposed to its mood which had already been established by the waltz itself and through the title and program notes.9 The movement is in ABA form, with the idée fixe coming into focus in the central episode, transposed and adjusted to fit within the triple meter of the waltz as it steals the show for a brief moment before receding into the background.10 At this point Berlioz moves the idée into the distant key of F major (the tonic being A major) to portray the physical distance between the Artist and his lover, placing her beyond reach.11
Third Movement: Scène aux Champs
The pastoral movement opens with an imitative dialogue between an English horn and an oboe (at the octave) as a Ranz-des-Vaches between shepherds. Berlioz places the oboe offstage to create a strong echo effect, probably the first such use of an offstage instrument in a symphonic setting.12 The pastoral theme that ensues is an independent melody with a character of its own yet organically related to the idée fixe, which itself doesn 't take long to reappear as the Beloved intrudes into the thoughts of the Artist.13 The shepherd reappears again in the coda but this time is unanswered by the shepherdess. To further accentuate the feelings of solitude and melancholy evoked by the music, Berlioz employs four timpani (A highly unusual feat at the time) tuned to different pitches to form a minor triad, which emulate "distant thunder" through a twenty measure long passage of chordal rolls that brings the movement to its conclusion.14 This idea will be
8Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 124.
9Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 55.
10Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 40.
11A. E. F. Dickinson, The Music of Berlioz (London: Faber, 1972), 133.
12Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 129.
13Robert Simpson, The Symphony (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966), 217.
14Luiz E. Castelões, "A Catalogue of Music Onomatopoeia," International Review of the Aesthetics & Sociology of
4 borrowed years later by Debussy in the final moments of the first of his three orchestral Nocturnes,
Nuages.*
Fourth Movement: Marche au Supplice
Much as the second movement evokes the image of a grand ball through the use of a waltz, the fourth movement creates the mood of the procession to the scaffold by means of a rigid ceremonial march in which Berlioz displays yet again the ingenious diversity of tone, texture and color that characterizes his orchestral writing, coupled with remarkable contrapuntal skill.
The solemn mood is quickly established through a rhythmic pas-à-pas figure in the double basses and timpani (four as in the previous movement) that remains pervasive throughout the movement. A noteworthy feature of this introduction is its complete lack of upper range sonorities due to Berlioz 's choice of instrumentation, the result of which is a grim and barren sound that would not have been half as effective without the highly descriptive nature of his orchestra.15 The movement develops with a simple alternation of two themes until the coda is reached, in which Berlioz contrasts a D-flat major chord in the brass and woodwinds against a G minor chord in the strings. This tritone relationship portrays the angst of the moment as the Artist witnesses himself slowly approaching the gallows (later borrowed by Mussorgsky for the Coronation Scene of Boris Godunov).16 As the character finally reaches the scaffold, the idée fixe is brought in by the clarinet in a wistful moment of nostalgia, untransformed in its original form, only to be cut short by the falling blade of the guillotine as the tutti sounds a thunderous G minor chord. As an additional element of
gruesome pictorialism, Berlioz arpeggiates the chord again in pizzicato strings from highest to lowest in a triple figure, dramatically imitating the dropping of the severed head.17 This is followed by the typical post-execution drum roll. The fourth movement was so successful that it was encored at the
Symphonie 's premiere on the 5th of December 1830.18
Music 40/2 (2009), 329.
15Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 131.
16Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 56.
17Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 96.
18Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz (London: J. M. Dent, 1982), 21.
5
Fifth Movement: Songe d 'une Nuit de Sabbat
The Artist is now transported to a Witch 's sabbath to assist the ceremonials of his own funeral in a frighteningly macabre finale that demands more from the listener than any other movement. This is where Berlioz fully unfolds the sinister potential of his massive orchestra. The opening section relies heavily on its harmonic language to establish the mood as well as to foreshadow musical events that will conclude the symphony. It is constructed of continual diminished 7th chords that in addition to the ghastly effect of the scurrying figures and cackling noises they embody, create a strong sense of uncertainty in the listener and consequently obstruct all expectations or suggestions of a path for the music.19 The Allegro section opens with the arrival of the beloved who has come to partake of the diabolical festivities of the black mass. The once noble and dignified image has now been distorted in rhythm and color into a vulgarized dance on a squealing clarinet in the most drastic transformation of the idée fixe in the entire work.20 The composer proceeds to introduce a parody of the Dies Irae followed by a witches dance in fugal style, then a combination of both that he enhances with multiple color effects: Bassoons playing in their highest register to emphasize the element of parody; Offstage bells tolling a summoning to the underworld; Violins and violas playing an extended col legno technique to imitate the rattling of bones; A series of shrieking trills in the woodwinds.21 The result is a grotesque orgy of unearthly sonorities that continues to grow and intensify until the vigorous conclusion of the symphony on a tutti C major cadence.
Since it 's premiere in 1830, the Symphonie Fantastique has held a dominant position in the romantic orchestral repertoire and a unique one in the history of music as one of the few surviving program symphonies.22 And although it does not quite adhere to the traditional format of a classical
19Nicholas Donlevy, "The Symbolism of Evil in Berlioz 's Symphonie Fantastique," (2003) Open Access Dissertations and Theses, Paper 5941, 24.
20Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 57.
21Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 138–150.
22Preston Stedman, The Symphony (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), 133.
6 symphony, it is in all evidence constructed upon it. The Symphonie is unique not only in regards to its subject matter but also, and perhaps more importantly, because it endorses as its main musical substance orchestral and instrumental manipulation. As a child and teenager, Berlioz was never granted the opportunity to learn the piano which led him to instinctively adopt a more direct method of dealing with the orchestra:23 Unlike most composers who conceive a work first as a piano piece then attempt to orchestrate it, from the beginning Berlioz was forced to 'think ' orchestrally, and as a result the orchestra became his instrument, which he played the way others would play a piano or violin.24 Berlioz subconsciously applied this modus operandi in the composition of the Symphonie, an approach that greatly exemplifies itself through the intricate orchestral design that is omnipresent throughout*. In an important essay written in 1837 titled "On Imitation in Music", he clearly states that it is never his ultimate goal to paint pictures or tell stories in music, but rather to explore emotions.25 Berlioz sought to facilitate this task by employing rather traditional musical means. In a preface to his program notes he writes: "The composer’s intention has been to develop various episodes in the life of an artist, in so far as they lend themselves to musical treatment...".26 This demonstrates that Berlioz carefully selected "episodes" that were inherently qualified for musical representation in order for his orchestral language to ring through them as clearly and with as little ambiguity as possible into the ear of the listener, an undertaking he quite skillfully succeeds in through his use of widely understood musical archetypes such as marches, dances, and hymns as framework for his music. Two years after the premiere of the Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz wrote a sequel to it, Lélio, which continues the "events" of the symphony. Today it is overshadowed by the success of its predecessor.
* Personal interpretation
23Jacques Barzun, Berlioz and the Romantic Century (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950), 36.
24Robert Greenberg, The Symphony (Chantilly, VA: Teaching, 2004), 54.
25Peter Bloom, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 54.
26Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy (New York: Dover Publications, 1984), 2.
7
Bibliography
Barzun, Jacques. Berlioz and the Romantic Century. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950.
Berlioz, Hector. Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy. New York: Dover Publications, 1984.
———, and Richard Strauss. Treatise on Instrumentation. New York: Dover, 1991.
Bloom, Peter, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000.
Castelões, Luiz E. "A Catalogue of Music Onomatopoeia." International Review of the Aesthetics &
Sociology of Music 40/2 (2009), 299–347.
Dickinson, A. E. F. The Music of Berlioz. London: Faber, 1972.
Donlevy, Nicholas. "The Symbolism of Evil in Berlioz 's Symphonie Fantastique" (2003). Open
Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5941.
Greenberg, Robert. The Symphony. Chantilly, VA: Teaching, 2004.
Macdonald, Hugh. Berlioz. London: J. M. Dent, 1982.
Simpson, Robert. The Symphony. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966.
Stedman, Preston. The Symphony. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992.
Thomas, Michael Tilson. "Music Fueled by Desire." http://www.keepingscore.org/interactive/pages/berlioz/orc-idee-fixe. 2011; accessed
November 2013.
Discography
Berlioz, Hector. Symphonie Fantastique. The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conducted by Riccardo Muti.
EMI CDC 7 47278 2, 1985. CD.