©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1 Romantic Program Music

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2 Depicts or portrays nonmusical ideas: incidents, images, objects, nature Romantic composers planned the music around the program Story told through recording insert or concert program Hector Berlioz: early Romantic program music composer

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3 Born 1803 Grew up in small French town Father sent him to medical school in Paris Quit medicine to become a composer 1830 Won the Prix de Rome, composition prize offered at the Paris Conservatory Wrote Symphonie fantastique for Harriet Smithson 1832 Composition performed in Paris with Smithson in audience 1833 Married Smithson Had difficulty getting works performed Wrote musical criticism to support family Wrote autobiography Conducted works throughout Europe Overlooked for various honors and conducting posts Recognized as gifted orchestrator 1843 Wrote Treatise on Instrumentation and Orchestration 1852 Became librarian of Paris Conservatory 1869 Died at age 65

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4 “An Episode in the Life of an Artist” Program Symphony in 5 movements Based on personal experience of meeting and falling in love with Harriet Smithson Young musician poisons himself with opium in lovesick despair Narcotic too weak to kill him, plunges into deep slumber with strange visions Sensations, emotions, and memories are transformed into musical thoughts and images Loved one becomes a melody, an idée fixe (fixed idea) The idée fixe occurs in each movement similar to the motive that unifies Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony Berlioz changes the idée fixe in each movement, a technique known as t hematic transformation Berlioz wrote for a larger orchestra than normal to portray multiple images and emotions Harriet Smithson

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 5 Part I: Reveries, Passions Recalls soul sickness, passion, depression before meeting beloved Idée fixe represents first meeting Movement ends with tenderness and religious consolation Part II: A Ball Encounters loved one at a dance Loved one again represented by idée fixe Part III: Scene in the Country Hears two shepherds piping melodies to each other across field Loved one appears again ( idée fixe ) and he fears she might be deceiving him Part IV: March to the Scaffold Dreams he has killed his beloved Condemned to death and led to scaffold Idée fixe appears again like a last thought of love Part V: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath Sees himself at Sabbath amid ghosts, sorcerers, monsters for his funeral Beloved appears again, but idée fixe has changed Bells toll and medieval chant is played, “ Dies irae ”

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 6 Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony) (1839) King Lear Overture (1831) Waverly Overture (ca. 1827) Rob Roy Overture (1831) Harold en Italie (1834)

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 7 Listening excerpt from CD 1, tracks 38-40, p. 188 Program symphony Larghetto-allegro No major sections repeat Orchestra Sextuple meter The artist and his love are dead in this movement Listen to the eerie opening with dissonance: Listen to the transformed idée fixe and bells tolling for the dead: Listen to the “Dies irae” (“Day of Wrath”) chant used in this movement:

©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 8 Franz Liszt Richard Strauss Developed symphonic poem, or tone poem Ignored tradition of organizing symphonies in movements Avoided sonata form in first movements Unified works with single theme or melody Les Préludes (1853) single movement work based on poem Composed twelve symphonic poems Bulk of work written in nineteenth century Also sprach Zarathustra – philosophic program Till Eulenspiegels lustig Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks) – comic program Don Quixote – comic program