{ program notes
Symphonie fantastique
Hector Berlioz
Born in La Côte-Saint-André , France , December 11 , 1803 ; died in Paris , March 8 , 1869
“ What a ferment of musical ideas there is in me ! … Now that I have broken the chains of routine I see an immense plain laid out before me which academic rules once forbade me to enter . Now that I have heard that aweinspiring giant , Beethoven , I know where the art of music now stands , now I have to take it to that point and push it yet further . … There are new things to be done and plenty of them . I sense this with intense energy , and I will do them , you may be sure , if I live .”
Hector Berlioz wrote these words to a friend in 1829 , and a year later , he embodied them in his first symphony , the still astounding Symphonie fantastique . Also titled “ Episode in an Artist ’ s Life ,” it was created just three years after his idol Beethoven ’ s death , and , in its way , it was as revolutionary as the “ Eroica ” or the Ninth symphonies . It is the first true program symphony , a work in which the music is generated not primarily by abstract musical rules and forms , but by an extra-musical plot . Beethoven had made some tentative steps in this direction with his “ Pastoral ” Symphony , but Berlioz leapt far ahead of him , paving the way for Liszt ’ s descriptive works , Mahler ’ s symphonies , and ultimately Richard Strauss ’ graphic tone poems .
The symphonic plot is based on Berlioz ’ s consuming , unfulfilled passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson , whom he first saw when she appeared in productions of Shakespeare ’ s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet in Paris in 1827 . Although he understood no English , the volatile young artist was smitten equally by Shakespeare and by Miss Smithson . His ardor for her burned even though they did not meet until 1832 . ( They married in 1833 — a disastrous union that proved one should never try to turn fantasy into reality .)
Here , somewhat abridged , is Berlioz ’ s storyline :
[ Movement one :] “ An artist , afflicted with a passionate imagination sees for the first time a woman who embodies all the charms of the ideal being he has dreamed of , and he falls hopelessly in love with her . By some strange trick of fancy , the beloved vision never appears … except in association with a musical idea [ the work ’ s idée fixe ] whose character — passionate but also noble and reticent — he finds similar to the one he attributes to his beloved …”
[ Movement two :] “ The artist finds himself in the most varied situations — in the midst of the tumult of a festivity , in the peaceful contemplation of the beauty of nature — but everywhere he is , in the city , in the country , the beloved vision appears before him and troubles his soul .”
The symphonic plot is based on Berlioz ’ s consuming , unfulfilled passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson .
[ Movement three :] “ Finding himself in the country at evening , he hears in the distance two shepherds piping a ranz des vaches [ a Swiss herding song ] in dialogue . … This pastoral duet , the quiet rustling of the trees gently disturbed by the wind … come together to give his heart an unaccustomed calm . … But what if she were deceiving him ! … The distant sound of thunder — solitude — silence .”
[ Movement four :] In despair , “ the artist poisons himself with opium . The dose of the narcotic , too weak to kill him , plunges him into a sleep accompanied by the most horrible visions . He dreams that he has killed the woman he loved , that he is condemned , led to the scaffold , and that he is witnessing his own execution . …”
[ Movement five :] “ He sees himself at the Sabbath in the midst of a frightful assembly of ghosts , sorcerers , monsters of every kind , all come together for his funeral . … The beloved melody appears again , but … now it is no more than the tune of an ignoble dance , trivial and grotesque . It is she come to the Sabbath . ... Funeral knell , burlesque parody of the “ Dies Irae ” [ the famous Catholic chant for the dead used in so many classical compositions ], Sabbath round-dance . …”
Berlioz called the five movements inspired by this program : “ Reveries and Passions ,” “ A Ball ,” “ In the Country ,” “ March to the Scaffold ” and “ Dream of the Witches Sabbath .” All the symphony ’ s innovations — the radical orchestration , eerie harmonies , eccentric rhythms and the idée fixe representing the beloved , which recurs in all movements — derive from Berlioz ’ s imaginative search for the right musical devices to express this Romantic fantasy .
The full idée fixe is presented as a long , yearning melody in the violins and flutes at the beginning of the first movement ’ s Allegro section . Its most striking reappearances come in the “ March to the Scaffold ,” where , sung by a solo clarinet , it is abruptly silenced by the fall of the guillotine ; and in the “ Witches Sabbath ” finale , where a shrieking E-flat clarinet presents a demonic version .
But Berlioz ’ s most extraordinary innovation is his use of the orchestra , which , in Michael Steinberg ’ s words , “ sounds and behaves like nothing heard before . His orchestra is as new as Paganini ’ s violin and Liszt ’ s piano .” Berlioz introduces instruments unknown in previous symphonies : English horn ( movement three ), two harps ( movement two ), grotesque E-flat clarinet ( finale ) and a fantastic array of percussion including an unprecedented four timpani ( movements 4 and 5 ). And he uses traditional instruments in ways seldom heard before : listen for the snarling stopped horns at the beginning of “ March to the Scaffold ” and the bone-rattling sound of violins being played with the wood of the bows in the “ Witches Sabbath .” Even today , more than 185 years after its composition , the Symphonie fantastique retains its radical edge and its ability to set our spines tingling .
Instrumentation : Two flutes including piccolo , two oboes including English horn , two clarinets including E-flat clarinet , four bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , two cornets , three trombones , two tubas , two timpani , percussion , two harps , strings .
Notes by Janet E . Bedell , Copyright © 2017
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