


Hector Berlioz was a Romantic French
composer who lived 1803-1869. His
works are good examples of program
music (music that tells a story).
Symphonie Fantastique musically tells
the story of an artist gifted with a lively
imagination who has poisoned himself
with opium in the depths of despair
because of hopeless love.
There are no words sung or spoken (only instruments
playing), so Berlioz wrote the name and description of
each movement in the program for the audience.



Mvt 1 “Reveries – Passions”: A young
artist first sees a beautiful woman and
falls deeply in love with her. He
experiences tidal waves of conflicting
emotions. (Throughout the work, the
woman is represented by the idée fixe.)
http://youtu.be/Mvh1gpdxCv0
Mvt 2 “A Ball”: The artist attends a ball, yet in all the
commotion he remains obsessed with the woman.
Mvt 3 “Scene in the Fields”: The artist goes for a walk
in the country and feels more hopeful for a while. But
then he thinks about her betraying him and he
thoughts turn very dark.


Mvt 4 “March to the Scaffold”: In despair, the artist
OD’s on opium and dreams that he is being led to his
execution on the guillotine for murdering his beloved.
Crowds cheer on as he is decapitated.
Mvt 5 “Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath”: A hideous
crowed of shades, sorcerers and monsters gather to
celebrate the artist’s funeral. A grotesque version of
his beloved comes
to dance with the
witches, to a
corrupted version
of the Requiem
chant Dies Irae.



In 1827 Berlioz went to see Shakespeare’s Hamlet and
fell in love with the English actress that played
Ophelia, Harriet Smithson. He wrote her countless
love letters but she never responded. Berlioz wrote
Symphonie Fantastique to express the unrequited love he
felt for her.
Symphonie Fantastique was first performed at the Paris
Conservatory in 1830. It has been very popular since
then and was an influential early-Romantic piece.
Finally, in 1832 Harriet heard Symphonie Fantastique
and decided to marry Berlioz. They had one child, but
their marriage quickly turned bitter.

“Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons
himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to
cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep
accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he
has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the
scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. As he cries for
forgiveness the effects of the narcotic set in. He wants to
hide but he cannot so he watches as an onlooker as he dies.
The procession advances to the sound of a march that is
sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and
solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows
without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the
march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final
thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow when his head
bounced down the steps.”
(Berlioz’s Program Notes)

Listen for:

“Condemning” timpani at the beginning
 Bass trombone blasting its lowest note during the
loud march
 Idée fixe (artist thinks of his beloved) right before the
“chop!”
 The decapitated head bouncing – pizzicato strings
 The cheering and snarling crowd throughout
https://youtu.be/QwCuFaq2L3U
