1. Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Son of a country doctor in south France
Went to Paris for medical school, but ended up at Paris Conservatory instead
Unprecedented, ambitious “grandiose” program symphonies
Extraordinary imagination for orchestral color
Inspired by literature – Shakespeare & Virgil
Supported himself as a writer on music
Wrote music criticism, orchestration treatise
Toured as a conductor of his own music

2. The Program Symphony: Hector Berlioz
A more radical approach to program music than the concert overture
An entire symphony with a program
Several movements – each one tells part of the “story”
“Story” often published in the program
The Romantic era’s most “grandiose” orchestral genre

3. Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony
Program symphony in five movements
Story was lurid autobiographical fantasy
Music encouraged listeners to think it was written under influence of opium
Inspired by his unrequited love for Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson
Bold music of unprecedented originality
Imaginative colors drawn from huge orchestra
An idée fixe recurs in every movement

4. Movement Format (1) Related to Classical symphony format
Middle two movements reversed
Movements IV & V unprecedented
I – Fast tempo, sonata form, slow intro
II – Moderate tempo, triple meter dance
Waltz instead of minuet or scherzo
III – The slow movement
IV – Moderate tempo; a march
V – Fast tempo, free form follows the story

5. Idée Fixe (1)
Fixed idea – a term popular in medical literature of the day
Here it is a theme that represents the composer’s beloved (Harriet Smithson)
Starts as a passionate, Romantic melody

6. Idée Fixe (2) It recurs in all five movements
Symbolizes each appearance of the beloved
Transformed into a raucous parody at the witches’ sabbath in the 5th movement

7. The Program Program of the Symphony
A young musician of unhealthy sensibility and passionate imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of lovesick despair. Too weak to kill him, the dose of the drug plunges him into a heavy sleep attended by the strangest visions, during which his sensations, emotions, and memories are transformed in his diseased mind into musical thoughts and images. Even the woman he loves becomes a melody to him, an idée fixe, as it were, that he finds and hears everywhere.

8. The Program: I 1st movement: Reveries, Passions
First he recalls the soul-sickness, the aimless passions, the baseless depressions and elations that he felt before first seeing his loved one; then the volcanic love that she instantly inspired in him; his jealous furies; his return to tenderness; his religious consolations.

9. The Program: II 2nd movement: A Ball
He encounters his beloved at a ball, in the midst of a noisy, brilliant party.

10. The Program: III 3rd movement: Scene in the Country
On a summer evening in the country, he hears two shepherds piping in dialogue. The pastoral duet, the location, the light rustling of trees stirred gently by the wind, some newly conceived grounds for hope— all this gives him a feeling of unaccustomed calm. But she appears again … what if she is deceiving him?

11. The Program: IV 4th movement: March to the Scaffold
He dreams he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. A march accompanies the procession, now gloomy and wild, now brilliant and grand. Finally the idée fixe appears for a moment, to be cut off by the fall of the axe.

12. The Program: V Finale: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
He finds himself at a Witches’ Sabbath … Unearthly sounds, groans, shrieks of laughter, distant cries echoed by other cries. The beloved’s melody is heard, but it has lost its character of nobility and timidity. It is she who comes to the Sabbath! At her arrival, a roar of joy. She joins in the devilish orgies. A funeral knell; burlesque of the Dies irae.

13. Fourth Movement: March to the Scaffold
Exciting, riotous march to the guillotine
Unusual form uses two main themes
Doesn’t use usual March–Trio–March format
Theme 1 a gloomy, wild downward scale
Theme 2 a grand, blaring military march
Many unusual tone colors used
Coda uses opening motive of idée fixe
The condemned composer’s final thought
Cut short by the fall of the axe!

14. Fifth Movement (1): Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
The most audacious movement yet
Depicts a Witches’ Sabbath
Orchestral sound effects reign supreme
Idée fixe now treated as vulgar parody
On piccolo clarinet with carnival ornaments
His beloved is the guest of honor!

15. Fifth Movement (2): Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
Composer’s funeral occurs simultaneously
Solemn Dies irae chant ridiculed by witches

16. Fifth Movement (3): Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
Raucous Witches’ Round Dance is a fugue
Round Dance & Dies irae combine at climax

17. Conclusions Typical early Romantic “grandiose” work
Program symphony for large orchestra
Blurs the lines between music, literature, theater, & autobiography
Cyclic work, unified by idée fixe
Fascination with supernatural, macabre
New orchestral colors, expressive effects
The often unusual forms follow the story
Only 39 years after Haydn’s Symphony 95!