FREE ESSAY ON HECTOR BERLIOZ

HECTOR BERLIOZ

Hector Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique at the age of 27. He based the program on
his own impassioned life and transferred his memoirs into his best- known program
symphony. The story is about a love sick, depressed young artist, while in his despair
poisons himself with opium. His beloved is represented throughout the symphony by the
symbolic idee fixe. 
There are five movements throughout symphony. 
The program begins with the 1st movement: Reveries, Passions symbolizing the artist's
life prior to meeting his beloved. This is represented as a mundaness and indefinable
searching or yearning, until suddenly, he meets her and his longing abruptly ceases and
is replaced by volcanic love. The soaring melody becomes the Idee fixe and is introduced
in this section. 
The 2nd movement: A Ball. This movement is representative of the gala ball where he once
again sees his beloved. This section is a dance movement in three-part form. The Idee
fixe reappears in waltz time.
The 3rd movement: Scene in the Fields. This section represents a tranquil interval. It is
a summer evening in the country and he hears two shepherds piping. The tranquil moment of
the quiet summer evening alone with the pastoral duet fills his heart with an unfamiliar
calm. Suddenly she appears and her appearance causes an emotional response of sorrowful
loneliness.
The 4th movement: March To the Scaffold. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, he is
condemned to die and is being lead to the scaffold. At the end of this movement the Idee
fixe reappears for a short instance and the reappearance becomes symbolic of the last
thought of love that is interrupted by the axe.
The 5th movement: Dream of a Witch's Sabbath. He imagines himself at a witch's Sabbath
surround by ghastly spirits who have gathered for his funeral. The frightful sounds of
groans, shrieks, and shrill laughter echo in his ears. Then, suddenly again the Idee fixe
appears. It is his beloved. But the familiar Idee fixe is no longer the reserved and
noble melody of the prior movements. The Idee fixe has now taken on new form and has
become vulgar and grotesque. She has come to this diabolical orgy. The witches greet her
with howling joy and she joins them in the demonic dance; Bells toll for the Dead.
Listening Guide 25 is the 4th movement, March To the Scaffold: The diabolical march is in
minor and the Idee fixe is heard in the last part of this movement. The clarinet is the
instrument that represents the Idee fixe and at the very end it is cut off by a grievous
fortissimo chord and then ends in a hadean quintessence. 
Structure
The medium is a large orchestra, (flute, piccolo, 2 clarinets, 4 french horns, 4
bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 2 ophideiodes, 2 timpani, bass drum, bells,
strings).
The form is loose tenary (A-B-A). The movement is in 6 sections. It begins with the
introduction of ominous drumbeats and muted brass. The introduction ends with an
exploding crescendo of a base drum which immediately introduces the 2nd section of theme
A of low strings in a slow cautious tempo, and is picked up by violins. Theme B brass and
woodwinds enter and picks up the tempo of diabolical march tune. The opening section is
then repeated. The 3rd or mid section is the development section. The tenary (B-A-B-A)
Begins with theme B in brass, then theme A pizzicato strings, alternating again to B in
Brass then Theme A. The 5th section is Theme A in full orchestra in original form, then
inverted, (ascending scale). The 6th section, the melody Idee fixe in clarinet, ("a last
thought of love"), in "dolce assai e passionato", followed by loud chord that cuts off
melody, significant of ("the fall of the axe"). 
The introduction begins with the distant sound of a steady beating drum that seems to
become louder . The steady beat is a march It has a serious tone with a non changing
beat. The melody of the march is flat and gives a sense of impending dume. The brass
bursts in on the monotone drum beat and suddenly takes over the melody and soars in an
ascending sound, reaching an apex and creschendos and then subsides with low strings
carrying the melody in a decending scale . There is a recapulation of this ascending and
descending sound and then the viola and bassoon unassumingly enter and slowly begin to
form there own quick little melody , totally unrelated to the grander melody of the brass
that maintains the deeper, grander, slower background. 
At the mid-section of this movement , it begins to take on an abstract quality. The theme
becomes more developed here and Belois employs the use of oppisite extremes to relay the
moods of a manic-depressive state. He picks up the tempo in full ochrestra in what seems
to be allegro in a grand triumphant march and then adds a disjunct touch by sudden ly
slowing the tempo down in low strings to a delilerate depressive crawl. A dissonance of
the melody is heard when he adds a sczophrantic touch by adding the bizaar violin plucks.

In the last section at the closing, the strings pick up at a frantic pace giving the
feeling that a new moment of anxiety has arisen and then suddenly, all is quiet and the
Idee fixe, the sweet melody of the clarinet is heard . Without warning the axe has
fallen, the sweet clarinet melody is cut off by the crash of a symbol and then the coda.

My Impression
Harriet Smithson should be proud to have this symphonie written about her. The symphonie
fantastique fourth movement relates a quality of energy that is consistant with
inapropriate mood changes that can sometimes be captured when in a dream-like state. The
march to the scafold begins to become disoriented when rather then a death march, it
starts to develop a pompous overtone, and become more or a grand prominade, but this is
part of the composer's genous. He composed the music to what would be the disjunct
qualities of a dream-like state. This music relates an abstractness that is symbolic of
the mind in a semi- conscious state.