. . . as useless and dangerous for another will to oppose mine . . .
as it is to try to keep gunpowder from exploding
The Aesthetic Problem of
Program Music:
Program (plot, title, extra-musical association):
Increase music’s expressive power?
Or limit it?
Self-sufficient, abstract play with sound pattern?
Narrative in tones?
Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique (1830),
Basics:
•genre = program symphony
•full program (not just programmatic title)
•5 movements instead of conventional 4
(Likely modeled on Beethoven’s 6th or “Pastorale Symphony”)
•idée fixe
Main melody for Berlioz Symph. Fantastique
Returns (often varied) in all 5 movements (thematic unity)
Autobiographical: represents Berlioz’s beloved
Harriet Smithson
Symphonie Fantastique, 1st movement:
Daydreams-Passions
A. Biography in musical tones? or . . .
B. Movement in Sonata Form?
•Idée fixe = first theme
•Idée fixe varied =second theme (on dominant)
•Idée fixe varied (development)
•Idée fixe returns (recapitulation)
•Idée fixe recalled in slow tempo at end (coda)
Symphonie Fantastique, 2nd movement:
A Ball
A. 2nd Movement = Waltz (instead of Minuet or Scherzo)
1. Takes place of symphonic dance movement
2. Programmatic function as musical portrayal of a masked ball
He encounters the loved one at a dance in the midst of the tumult of a brilliant party.
The beloved image appears before him and troubles his peace of mind.
Symphonie Fantastique, 2nd movement:
A Ball
A. 2nd Movement = Waltz (instead of Minuet or Scherzo)
1. Takes place of symphonic dance movement
2. Programmatic function as musical portrayal of a masked ball
B. Berlioz as Master of Orchestration
Great Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and
Orchestration (1843)
C. Idée fixe: thematic unity or “the image of the beloved”??
Symphonie Fantastique, 3rd movement:
Scene in a Meadow
(functions as slow movement)
Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement:
March to the Scaffold
Having become convinced that his love is not returned, he poisons
himself with opium; he has been condemned, led to the scaffold, and
now is witnessing his own execution.
1830 Having found out for certain that the woman he adores
not only does not return his love but is incapable of
understanding it and, moreover, is unworthy of it,
he poisons himself with opium.
1832 Having found out for certain that the woman he adores
does not return his love, he poisons himself with opium.
1833 In despair at seeing his passion misunderstood and
scorned, he poisons himself with opium.
1836 Having found out for certain that his passion is
misunderstood, he poisons himself with opium.
1855 Having become convinced that his love is not returned,
he poisons himself with opium.
Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement:
“March to the Scaffold”
1, 2, 3 Repeat
1. Introduction: opium-drugged artist (or motivic fragmentation)?
2. “Somber and Ferocious” or First Theme Varied 5x?
a. Theme in Cello/Bass (descending scale)
b. Theme + soft countermelody in Bassoon
c-d. Theme in Violins, faster countermelody in cellos and basses (2x)
e. Theme inverted, pizzicato (plucked) in cellos and basses
+ rapid countermelody for bassoon
3. Brilliant and Stately Procession or Contrasting Theme?)
4. Themes developed and recapitulated
5. Coda with idée fixe
Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement:
Witches Sabbath
(Listening Tips)
A. Idée fixe transformed (beauty to beast)
Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement:
Witches Sabbath
B. Mocks Gregorian Chant “Dies irae” by playing in
diminution (and dbl. dim.)
Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement:
Witches Sabbath
C. Witches Theme treated as fugato (fugue within larger mvt.)
and finally combined with Dies irae chant
Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement:
Witches Sabbath
D. Col legno (with the wood) effect
The Crux:
Berlioz’s aesthetics vs.
Music’s Powers of Representation
The aim of the story line is by no means to copy faithfully
what the composer has tried to present in orchestral terms
. . . on the contrary it is precisely to fill in the gaps that the
use of musical language unavoidably leaves.
He knows very well that music can take the
place of neither word nor picture. He has never had the
absurd intention of expressing abstractions or moral
qualities, but rather passions and feelings.
Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement:
Witches Sabbath, conclusion