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Although Berlioz intended it to stand on its own merits, he did publish a literary programme for the Symphonie, and this adds immeasurably to the experience. Interestingly, though, as much as it illuminates the music, so it also provides an insight into the composer's own life.
In life as in music, Berlioz was always an arch romantic, given to sudden and intense bouts of passion. One such involved an Irish actress named Harriet Smithson who he saw playing Ophelia and Juliet in 1827. He immediately became overwhelmingly infatuated with her, but despite many passionate advances she did not return his affections.
However, he did manage to channel the emormous emotional energy of his impotent passion into something creative - the Symphonie Fantastique. Taking as its theme, "An Episode in an Artist's Life" it tells of a young musician who, distracted by unrequited love, takes a non-fatal dose of opium. This transports him through a series of dreams in which the object of his passions features as a recurring theme - the idée fixe.
There can be no doubt that Berlioz intended the Symphonie as a romantic self-portrait, and probably also an obsessive attempt to gain the love of a seemingly unattainable woman.
1. Reveries - Passions. The composer imagines that a young musician, afflicted with that spiritual sickness which a celebrated writer calls the vague des passions, first sees a woman who possesses all the charms of the ideal creature of his dreams and falls hopelessly in love. By some strange aberration, the beloved image only appears in the artist's mind together with a musical thought which he finds impassioned in character, yet also noble and shy, like the object of his love.The writer was Chateaubriand. The idée fixe - originally used in his earlier work "Herminie" - is introduced as a gentle melody on flutes and violins early in the movement, which goes on to explore a wide range of emotions before returning to tranquility.
2. A Ball. The artist is placed in the widest variety of circumstances, in the midst of the noise of a carnival, in the peaceful contemplation of the beauties of nature - but everywhere, in the town, in the fields, the beloved image appears before him and troubles his soul.Through the swirl of a waltz we twice catch a fleeting glimpse of his beloved, in the idée fixe.
3. Scene in the Country. He finds it is evening in the country. He hears in the distance two shepherds play a ranz des vaches to eachother. This pastoral duet, the effect of the setting, the light rustle of the trees gently moved by the breeze, the many feelings of hope which he has begun to have, all conspire to bring an unaccustomed calm to his heart, and give his thoughts a more cheerful colour. He reflects on his loneliness, and hopes soon to be lonely no longer... But what if she is deceiving him!... His thoughts are a mixture of hope and fear, of happiness troubled by dark forebodings. At the end, one of the shepherds resumes the ranz des vaches, the other does not respond... The distant sound of thunder... solitude... silence.The shepherds are represented by an oboe (offstage) and cor anglais, and the tune they play - the ranz des vaches - is a Swiss Alpine dance. Berlioz admired Beethoven above all other composers, and on one occasion stated that he "took up music where Beethoven left it". It is probably no coincidence that this movement is reminiscent of Beethoven's "Pastorale", even including the thunder which doubles as an image of nature and a forboding of the artists dreams darkening to nightmares.
4. March to the Scaffold. Convinced that his love is unrequited, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, too feeble to kill him, plunges him into a sleep accompanied by the most horrible visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, is condemned, taken to the scaffold, and witnesses his own execution. The procession advances to a march that is at times somber and fierce, at others brilliant and solemn, in which heavy footsteps are immediately followed by loud crashes. At the end of the march the idée fixe returns, like a last thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow.The march was originally used in his opera Les Francs-Juges. The mocking laughter of the crowd is supplied by four bassoons.
5. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath. He sees himself at a witches sabbath, in the midst of a frightful crowd of ghosts, sorcerers, monsters of every kind, assembled for his funeral. Strange noises, groans, bursts of laughter, distant cries to which other cries seem to reply. The beloved melody reappears again, but it has lost its character of nobility and shyness; it is now no more than a common dance tune, trivial and grotesque; it is she who comes to the sabbath... A roar of joy at her arrival... She mingles with the devilish orgy... Funeral knell, a burlesque parody of the Dies Irae sabbath round-dance. The sabbath round-dance and the Dies Irae together.The idée now returns as a discordant, squealing parody of the original melody played in 6/8 time on the small E flat and C clarinets. The notes are so jarring that the original publishers sensed a mistake, and sought reassurance from the composer. Bells offstage presage the mediaeval Dies Irae, used here, as in Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, as a diabolic theme. Finally all of the movement's elements are combined as our hero descends into the darkest pit.
Using the proceeds of the Prix de Rome which he won in 1830, Berlioz arranged the premiere of Symphonie Fantastique at the Paris Conservatoire. Two years later, at another performance, Smithson finally reciprocated his love, and they were married in 1833. They had a son, with whom he remained close throughout his life, but the marriage itself was sadly doomed to fail.
What unusual musical feature do Mars from Holst's
Planets and Lalo Schifirin's theme to Mission Impossible have
in common?
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