History of Music, Mr. Robert L. Johnston
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Aim:
Who was Berlioz and why is Symphonie Fantastique an
important work?
Instructional Objectives:
At the conclusion of this unit, students will:
I.
Have met Berlioz, and have gained an understanding
of his background.
II. Have an understanding of the background of Symphonie
Fantastique in its story, orchestration and
importance.
III. Have seen a performance of Symphonie Fantastique by
Chrsitoph Eschenbach and the Orchestre de Paris.
Motivation:
Having performed Symphonie Fantastique numerous times,
including at Carnegie Hall, I can tell you it is a grueling
undertaking.
Development/Procedures:
I.
Background
a. Born near Lyon, France
b. Father was an atheist physician, mother a devout
Roman Catholic
c. Was home-schooled by his father
d. Did not start leaning music until he was 12
i. Played flute and guitar
ii. Did not play piano
iii. Was not a prodigy, nor did he display any
early talent like Mozart, Beethoven and
Mendelssohn
iv. Learned harmony from textbooks on his own
II.
Beginning of Compositional Life
a. At 18, left for Paris to study medicine
i. His father’s wish, not his
ii. Eventually detailed how disgusted he was at
seeing a human corpse dissected in his
memoirs
b. Began regular visits to the Paris opera and Paris
Conservatory Library
i. Was especially inspired by the operas of
Gluck and the music of Beethoven
ii. Was initially supported by
1. Cherubini
2. Spontini
3. Lesueur
iii. Would copy Gluck’s opera score
1. Haven’t we learned of other composers
learning this way?
c. Three years after starting his study of medicine
(1824), he abandoned it to focus on music full
time
i. His early works included a Mass and an Opera
ii. Formally enrolled in the conservatory in
1826
iii. It was during this time, he became obsessed
with winning the Prix de Rome, a composition
competition that carried a five year stipend
1. He eventually won in 1830
d. He also met the subject of Symphonie Fantastique
during this time, Harriet Smithson
i. He pursued her by sending her very
passionate letters
ii. He ultimately became engaged to another
woman
iii. Henrietta Smithson
http://www.drmk.ch/werke/wberliozop14.html
e. As his studies progressed, he was exposed to the
Beethoven symphonies, string quartets and piano
sonatas, and found great importance in these
works
f. Befriended Franz Liszt during this time
g. Through the course of this time, Berlioz is
rebelling against musical academia, and its rules
of composition, especially being in Conservatory.
i. Berlioz laid the foundation of the new
school of composition that is known as
programme music.
h. Was also a colorful writer. Notice how he
describes composing during the July Revolution
i. "I was finishing my cantata when the
Revolution broke out. I dashed off the
final pages of my orchestral score to the
sound of stray bullets coming over the roofs
and pattering on the wall outside my window.
On the 29th I had finished, and was free to
go out and roam about Paris 'till morning,
pistol in hand.”
III. Time in Italy
a. As part of the Prix de Rome, he is required to
spend time studying in Rome
b. He writes, “Rome is the most stupid and prosaic
city I know; it is no place for anyone with head
or heart.”
c. During this time, his fiancée wrote him that she
was marrying another man
i. Berlioz planned an elaborate murder
1. He planned to murder his former
fiancée, her mother, and the new
fiancée
2. He planned to gain entry to their home
by wearing a disguise
3. He planned to shoot them (he stole
pistols), but planned to bring poison
just in case
4. Didn’t go through with plan
d. Berlioz’s travels in Italy, along with his many
experiences shaped his personality, and
subsequently his music
e. Painting of Berlioz by Émile Signol, 1832
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Berlioz_young.jpg
IV.
Post Prix de Rome
a. Berlioz caricature
http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/bio25992.htm
b. Berlioz ultimately met Harriet at a concert of
his music
i. He did not speak English, she did not speak
French
ii. They were married anyway
iii. They were ultimately divorced after she
became an alcoholic and he started having an
affair
iv. They had one son
c. Berlioz had associations with many important
figures of the time. He also had many famous
people attend his concerts like
i. Nicolo Paganini
1. He wrote Harold in Italy for him
a. This is a work for viola and
orchestra
ii. Hugo
iii. Dumas
iv. Chopin
v. Glinka
vi. Wagner
d. Increasingly, France is becoming less and less
receptive to his music
i. He writes, “Great success, great profit,
great performances, etc. etc. … France is
becoming more and more philistine towards
music, and the more I see of foreign lands
the less I love my own. Art, in France, is
dead; so I must go where it is still to be
found. In England apparently there has been
a real revolution in the musical
consciousness of the nation in the last ten
years. We shall see.”
e. Worked extensively as a conductor
i. Helped achieve the proper interpretation of
his works
ii. Helped earn an income
1. He was apparently paid quite well
iii. His conducting technique as described by
contemporary sources appears to set the
groundwork for the clarity and precision
favored in the French School of conducting
right up to the present, exemplified by such
figures as Pierre Monteux, Charles Münch,
Pierre Boulez and Charles Dutoit.
f. Was a music critic, as well as an author
i. His Treatise on Instrumentation is
considered a crucial work
g. Photograph of Berlioz by Nadar, January 1857
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Berlioz8.gif
h. After his tragedies in love
i. His first fiancée left him for another man
(murder, intrigue…remember?)
ii. His first wife became an alcoholic after a
storybook, whirlwind relationship
iii. His third wife died suddenly
iv. The young girl he started a relationship
with died, and he found out six months later
v. Many of his family and friends had died
vi. Musical attention had shifted back to German
composers
vii. He writes, “I am in my 61st year; past
hopes, past illusions, past high thoughts
and lofty conceptions. My son is almost
always far away from me. I am alone. My
contempt for the folly and baseness of
mankind, my hatred of its atrocious cruelty,
have never been so intense. And I say hourly
to Death: ‘When you will’. Why does he
delay?”
viii. Last photograph of Berlioz, 1868
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Berlioz_in1868.jpg
ix. Died an invalid after a stroke and is buried
next to his two wives
V.
Symphonie Fantastique
a. In five movements
i. Each has a musical plot centered around
Berlioz’s love obsession with Harriet
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
1. Dreams, Passions
2. A Ball
a. The stylized dance movement, a
waltz
3. Scene at the Country
a. Features an off-stage oboe and
prominent English horn solo
4. March to the Scaffold
5. Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath
a. Interesting use of string
techniques such as pizzicato, col
legno and ponticello
b. Extensive use of brass and
percussion
6. The whole work is unified by the idée
fixe, or fixed idea
a. This is a musical motif that
appears in prominent places
throughout all five movements and
musically represents Harriet
b. This is clearly the precursor to
Wagner’s leitmotif
The work tells the story of seeing Harriet
for the first time, perhaps in an opiuminduced haze, then seeing her at a ball,
then ultimately killing her and being
executed for it, and finally his experience
in hell, with demons dancing around him
He described his Symphonie Fantastique as an
'opera without words'; each movement vividly
describes different scenes in an opium trip,
often with extreme changes in mood and
feeling
Leonard Bernstein called this symphony the
first musical expedition into psychedelia
because of its hallucinatory and dream-like
nature, and because history suggests Berlioz
composed at least a portion of it under the
influence of opium
Orchestration
1. 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo)
2. 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn)
3. 2 clarinets (1st doubling E-flat
clarinet)
4. 4 bassoons
5. 4 French horn
6. 2 trumpets and 2 cornets
7. 3 trombones
8. 2 ophicleides (later reorchestrated by
the composer for tubas)
9. 2 pairs of timpani
10.
snare drum
11.
cymbals
12.
bass drum
13.
bells in C and G
14.
2 harps
15.
large string section
Materials of Instruction:
Smart Board
Various Recordings
Summary:
Berlioz is an important modern musical figure, in that
technology allowed him to travel all the way to Russia.
His contemporary influence is heard in Nicolai RimskyKorsakov, the teacher of Igor Stravinsky, as well as the
works of Germans Wagner and Mahler.
He influenced a broad range of French conductors, many
of whom are still working today and his written works are
still academic standards.
Be sure to learn more about this pivotal figure.
Assignment:
Relax! The semester is over, and you have a long
weekend. Be sure to enjoy some Berlioz, like his powerful
Requiem, or opera Les Troyens.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Berlioz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonie_fantastique
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02495a.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/22673/berlioz.html
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique & Harold en Italie, Christoph
Eschenbach & Orchestre de Paris, Bel Air Classiques, 2006
Suggested Reference:
History of Music, Hugh H. Miller, Barnes & Noble
Books, New York. 1972
http://library.thinkquest.org/22673/berlioz.html
Robert L. Johnston