Symphonie fantastique

Inspiration#

Attending a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet on 11 September 1827, Berlioz fell in love with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, who played the role of Ophelia. His biographer Hugh Macdonald writes of Berlioz’s “emotional derangement” in obsessively pursuing her, without success, for several years. She refused even to meet him. He sent her numerous love letters, all of which were unanswered. The Symphonie fantastique reflects his obsession with Smithson. She did not attend the premiere, given at the Paris Conservatoire on 5 December 1830, but she heard Berlioz’s revised version of the work in 1832 at a concert that also included its sequel, Lélio, which incorporates the same idée fixe and some spoken commentary. She finally appreciated the strength of his feelings for her. The two met shortly afterwards and began a romance that led to their marriage the following year.

Instrumentation#

The score calls for an orchestra of about 90 players: ;Woodwinds : : : :4 bassoons ;Brass :4 horns :2 cornets :2 trumpets :3 trombones :2 ophicleides ;Percussion : :cymbals :snare drum (used only in movement IV) :bass drum : ;Strings :at least 6 harps (used only in movement II) :at least 15 1st violins :at least 15 2nd violins :at least 10 violas :at least 11 celli :at least 9 double basses

Movements#

Following the precedent of the Pastoral Symphony of Beethoven, whom Berlioz revered, the symphony has five movements, instead of four as was conventional for symphonies of the time. Each movement depicts an episode in the protagonist’s life that is described by Berlioz in the notes to the 1845 score. These notes are quoted (in italics) in each section below.

I. “Rêveries – Passions” (Daydreams – passions)#

Structurally the movement derives from the traditional sonata form found in all classical symphonies. A long, slow introduction leads to an Allegro in which Berlioz introduces the idée fixe as the main theme of a sonata form comprising a short exposition followed by alternating sections of development and recapitulation. The idée fixe begins: The theme was taken from Berlioz’s scène lyrique “Herminie”, composed in 1828.

II. “Un bal” (A ball)#

The second movement is a waltz in . It begins with a mysterious introduction that creates an atmosphere of impending excitement, followed by a passage dominated by two harps; then the flowing waltz theme appears, derived from the idée fixe at first, then transforming it. More formal statements of the idée fixe twice interrupt the waltz. The movement is the only one to feature the two harps. Another feature of the movement is that Berlioz added a part for solo cornet to his autograph score, although it was not included in the score published in his lifetime. It is believed to have been written for the virtuoso cornet player Jean-Baptiste Arban. The work has most often been played and recorded without the solo cornet part.

III. “Scène aux champs” (Scene in the country)#

The third movement is a slow movement, marked Adagio, in . The two shepherds mentioned in the programme notes are depicted by a cor anglais and an offstage oboe tossing an evocative melody back and forth. After the cor anglais–oboe conversation, the principal theme of the movement appears on solo flute and violins. It begins with: Berlioz salvaged this theme from his abandoned Messe solennelle. The idée fixe returns in the middle of the movement, played by oboe and flute. The sound of distant thunder at the end of the movement is a striking passage for four timpani.

IV. “Marche au supplice” (March to the scaffold)#

Berlioz claimed to have written the fourth movement in a single night, reconstructing music from an unfinished project, the opera Les francs-juges. The movement begins with timpani sextuplets in thirds, for which he directs: “The first quaver of each half-bar is to be played with two drumsticks, and the other five with the right hand drumsticks”. The movement proceeds as a march filled with blaring horns and rushing passages, and scurrying figures that later show up in the last movement. Before the musical depiction of his execution, there is a brief, nostalgic recollection of the idée fixe in a solo clarinet part, as though representing the last conscious thought of the soon-to-be-executed man.

V. “Songe d’une nuit du sabbat” (Dream of a night of the sabbath)#

This movement can be divided into sections according to tempo changes: * The introduction is Largo, in common time, creating an ominous quality through the copious use of diminished seventh chords, dynamic variations and instrumental effects, particularly in the strings (tremolos, pizzicato, sforzando). * At bar 21, the tempo changes to Allegro and the metre to . The return of the idée fixe as a “vulgar dance tune” is depicted by the C clarinet. This is interrupted by an Allegro Assai section in cut time at bar 29. * The idée fixe then returns as a prominent E clarinet solo at bar 40, in and Allegro. The E clarinet contributes a brighter timbre than the C clarinet. * At bar 80, there is one bar of alla breve, with descending crotchets in unison through the entire orchestra. Again in , this section sees the introduction of the bells (or Piano playing in Triple Octaves) and fragments of the “witches’ round dance”. *The “Dies irae” begins at bar 127, the motif derived from the 13th-century Latin sequence. It is initially stated in unison between the unusual combination of four bassoons and two ophicleides. The key, C minor, allows the bassoons to render the theme at the bottom of their range. * At bar 222, the “witches’ round dance” motif is repeatedly stated in the strings, to be interrupted by three syncopated notes in the brass. This leads into the Ronde du Sabbat (Sabbath Round) at bar 241, where the motif is finally expressed in full. * The Dies irae et Ronde du Sabbat Ensemble section is at bar 414. There are a host of effects, including trilling in the woodwinds and col legno in the strings. The climactic finale combines the somber Dies Irae melody, now in A minor, with the fugue of the Ronde du Sabbat, building to a modulation into E major, then chromatically into C major, ending on a C chord.

Reception#

At the premiere of the , there was protracted applause at the end, and the press reviews expressed both the shock and the pleasure the work had given. There were dissenting voices, such as that of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, the conservative author of the , who regarded the work as an abomination for which Berlioz would suffer in Purgatory, but despite the striking unconventionality of the work, it was generally well received. François-Joseph Fétis, founder of the influential wrote of it approvingly, and Robert Schumann published an extensive, and broadly supportive analysis of the piece in the in 1835. but concluded: “in spite of an apparent formlessness, there is an inherent correct symmetrical order corresponding to the great dimensions of the work – and this besides the inner connection of thought”. When the work was played in New York in 1865 critical opinion was divided: “We think the Philharmonic Society wasted much valuable time in the vain endeavor to make Berlioz’s fantastic ravings intelligible to a sane audience” (New York Tribune); a rare treat, “a wonderful creation” (New York Daily Herald). By the middle of the 20th century, the authors of The Record Guide, calling the work “one of the most remarkable outbursts of genius in the history of music”, commented that it was a favourite with the public and with great conductors. Opinions differed about how much the symphony fitted the classical symphonic model. Sir Thomas Beecham, a lifelong proponent of Berlioz’s music, remarked on the originality of the work, which “broke upon the world like some unaccountable effort of spontaneous generation which had dispensed with the machinery of normal parentage”. A later conductor, Leonard Bernstein, said of the hallucinatory aspects of the work: “Berlioz tells it like it is … You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral. Take a tip from Berlioz: that music is all you need for the wildest trip you can take, to hell and back.” Others regard the work as more recognisably classical: Constant Lambert wrote of the symphony, “formally speaking it is among the finest of nineteenth century symphonies”. The composer and musical scholar Wilfrid Mellers called the symphony “ostensibly autobiographical, yet fundamentally classical … Far from being romantic rhapsodizing held together only by an outmoded literary commentary, the Symphonie fantastique is one of the most tautly disciplined works in early nineteenth-century music.”

Use in modern times#

The main title sequence from Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining released in 1980, was scored by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind. Within the title track is a reworking of the “Dies irae” section of Symphonie fantastique’s fifth movement ‘Songe D’une Nuit De Sabbat (Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath)’. Later, Zootopia 2 used this theme in a scene imitating The Shining. The “Dies irae” traditional melody is translated from Latin as “day of wrath”. It is a somber chant dating back to the Middle Ages. The melody was originally used as part of funeral church services, usually as a sung mass for the dead. It has been used by composers to symbolise death, perhaps most prominently in Symphonie fantastique. The fifth chapter, Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath were used in Kagaku Sentai Dynaman as background music during the ‘monsters of the week’ making process.

Sources#

External links#

• Symphonie fantastique on the Hector Berlioz Website, with links to Scorch full score and programme note written by the composer.
• Keeping Score: Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, multimedia website with interactive score produced by the San Francisco Symphony
• European Archive. A copyright-free LP recording of the Symphonie fantastique by Willem van Otterloo (conductor) and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the European Archive
• Beyond the Score. A concert-hall dramatized documentary and performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Symphonie fantastique at the Internet Archive, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski conducting
• Complete performance of the symphony by the London Symphony Orchestra accompanied by visual illustrations of the symphony’s programme