Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

My Initial Perceptions

Dreams / Passions - This movement had peaks and trough's in its character, shifting between wistful, thoughtful and drifting, to moments of jubilation where it felt like the music was in flight.

A Ball - Dance-like in character, in light and airy triple time with an ambiguous beginning where the strings have an ominous sound like the coming of a storm, but the music instead takes a much more playful approach, with a triumphant ending.

Scene in the Meadows - A solo cor anglais opens this movement, striking up conversation with a single oboe; the texture of the music remains sparse for the first few minutes of the music. There are moments of drama interspersed with the overall pastoral sound. There are some suspenseful and intense moments from the timpani in the last few minutes of the movement.

March to the Scaffold - More drama in this movement, in a contrasting character to the previous. Greater dynamic range with lots of rolling timpani building tension, with some jubilation from the brass in parts.

Dream of the Witches' Sabbath - The movement opens with an almost menacing feel, but quickly becomes much more lively and even amusing. This is short lived though when the music again switches character back to a more ominous sound, with a great sounding bell that sounds somber and mournful. The music moves back and forth between these different moods, so I didn't quite know what to expect next!


Background

Hector Berlioz was a self-taught musician and late bloomer who's lack of technical expertise allowed him to pull off a symphony of stunning originality in a time where Haydn had been dead for only twenty-two years, and Beethoven for only three. In the symphony he combined his four great loves - the dramatic power of Shakespeare, the musical storytelling of Opera, the symphonic genre (inspired by Beethoven), and himself. Symphonie Fantastique is filled with special effects and experimental daring, a composite of literature and music. Berlioz thought 'orchestrally' from the beginning; most composers write their music on piano, then orchestrate it afterwards. Berlioz wasn't a pianist, so scored directly for the orchestra. He was not understood by his contemporaries, and even thought of as a crackpot. Now however, Symphonie Fantastique is widely considered the greatest first symphony ever composed.

Symphonie Fantastique is an autobiographical work; a tale of his being in love with a woman who doesn't know or care he exists, and his downward spiral into death and despair. The woman in question was Harriet Smithson, whom Berlioz had seen perform on 11th September 1827 as Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. He became infatuated with Harriet and persued her for several years, although they had no contact save for some letters that Berlioz sent her. His anguish at her nonchalance was exacerbated when in early 1830 he discovered Harriet's relationship with her manager, and Berlioz broke down. Berlioz and Smithson met in 1832 at a performance of Symphonie Fantastique, and married after Harriet's realisation that she was the subject of the symphony, strongly implied by the program notes.

The five moments of the symphony describe a progressive series of emotional states, and are bound together by a single recurring thematic thread which Berlioz called the idée fixe - the fixed idea. This melody represents Harriet, and Berlioz's lovesick despair, and is heard in all five movements in several guises. In the idée fixe the melody climbs higher and higher, portraying Berlioz's hopes of love, then descends into sigh-like motif's as the love is unrequited.


Looking At The Movements In More Detail

Movement One - Dreams / Passions

This movement's focus, although technical speaking is in quasi sonata-allegro form, is not about theme and development but about introducing the idée fixe, and describing the pained longing and the conscious and unconscious flow of emotions about the beloved image. It depicts soaring hopes and calm moods as the artist muses 'could she really love me?'. There are a plethora of mood swings in this movement, from abject melancholy to ecstatic joy, as these are the emotions the artist has when he thinks about the woman.

Movement Two - A Ball

This movement depicts the artist's attempts to lose himself in the public tumult of a party. The ball is depicted by a graceful waltz, but the artist can't get the thoughts of the woman out of his mind. Berlioz portrays this in the music by quieting the waltz and bringing forth the idée fixe. The waltz then comes back, more frenzied this time as the artist attempts the purge the thoughts of the woman from his mind. This cycle continues, but the artist's attempts are futile. In the 20th century, this technique was labelled 'psychodrama' whereby the music combines the external, real environmental sound (the waltz) with the artist's own internal thoughts (the idée fixe).

Movement Three - Scene in the Meadows

The artist's thoughts turn from hope to ugliness, light to dark in this movement. In this movement he begins to  have doubts as to whether his beloved will return his love, and nature is used here as a metaphor for the artist's inner turmoil - the storm in the music represents the storm in the heart of the artist. The score alternates between calm evocations of the idée fixe to loud harsh musical outbursts, as the artist struggles between 'she loves me, she loves me not'. The movement concludes with a resounding 'not', leading the artist down a dark path from which the music won't recover.

Movement Four - March to the Scaffold

The artist takes a dose of opium which although too weak to kill him, sends him into feverous hallucinations where he dreams that he has killed his beloved, and is now being led through the streets to his execution. A distant thrumming of slowly approaching drums symbolises the nearing cart bearing the condemned. This is followed by the first theme, a descending minor scale representing the artists terror at his fate. Berlioz, in the later development section overcomes his technical weaknesses with a very imaginative divided orchestration section where different parts of the orchestra take a seperate note of the melody giving a varied tone colour. This technique was later coined 'klangfarbenmelodie'. The second theme arrives, an environmental theme depicting the march to the scaffold. At the coda we have the 'guillotine chords' - a frantic fanfare comprised of dotted rhythms signifying we have arrived at the scaffold. There are descending string scales depicting the artist's head being lowered onto the chopping block. This is followed by a remarkable section where the music suddenly becomes quiet, and a solo clarinet plays the idée fixe - the artist has a focused, tunnel-vision-esque internal reality that is suddenly interrupted by the chomp of the blade, and an imaginative three plucked notes from the strings represents his head falling into the basket. The movement concludes with a drum and brass fanfare celebrating the artist's death.

Movement Five - Dream of the Witches' Sabbath

In this movement the artist is subjected to even more intense hallucinations. Berlioz goes to great lengths to paint a musical picture of this scene, where you could imagine a broken graveyard and ruined church on a moonless night where spooks and ghouls abound with vermin, depicted by sharp high notes on the strings, scurrying across the ground. This introduction is intended not to create specific harmony or melody,but as a sound effect landscape. The idée fixe then returns, but it is now transformed into a bewarted, obscene, witch-like character revelling in the artist's demise, and the once beautiful melody has now become a strange and obscene jig, played by the screechy soprano Bb clarinet. The witching hour tolls, played by offstage bells, and Berlioz utilises the medieval catholic chant dies irae as a song for the night creatures which is played in three long phrases, each one quicker than the last, repeated three times, with the quickest each time resembling the strange jig danced by the idée fixe in the introduction.
Then follows the witches round dance in fugal style which depicts the evil creatures dancing around the casket of the dead artist. The witches round and dies irae are combined in the recapitulation where we also hear a representation of dancing skeletons played by the strings 'col legno' - with the wood of the bow. The devilish orgy, and the symphony, are brought to an energetic conclusion with a frenzied finale.


Conclusion

Although the exercise only required a closer study of one or two movements, I enjoyed my research of Symphony Fantastique so much that I decided to utilise my notes for all five moments. I found Berlioz's method of focusing less on technique and form, and more on musical storytelling exciting, and thought he depicted the events in the program notes exceptionally well. I think my own perceptions on my first listen fell quite close to the mark, and repeated listening with the benefit of the program notes provided greater context. Berlioz's imagination certainly runs free in this work, and secures his place with Liszt and Wagner in the 19th Century vanguard of music.