Chapter 37 Personal Soundtracks

CHAPTER 37
Personal Soundtracks: Berlioz
and the Program Symphony
Copyright © 2020 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Copyright © 2020, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Program Music & Symphonic Works
After Beethoven, two courses were established:
An attempt at sustaining the traditional concept of the symphony as established by
the Viennese Classicists
• Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms
Venturing into the experimental in expressiveness and expansion as modeled after
Beethoven’s 6th(Pastoral) and 9th(Choral)
• Berlioz, Liszt, Mahler

Berlioz & Liszt
Abandoned four movement form
Theme transformation
Colorful and expressive orchestral
resources
Many changes in tempo & dynamics
Melodic & harmonic chromaticism
Program Music

Romantic Program Music
Varieties of Program Music
Four main types of program music:
Concert overture
Incidental music
Program symphony
Symphonic poem / tone poem

Program Music
Overtures became independent of their theatrical origin
Achieve programmatic status
Overture-direct prototype for Liszt’s conception of a one-movement
symphonic poem
His view was to refrain from narrative & literal depiction, theme
transformation

Obsessed with actress
Harriet Smithson
“Smithson & Berlioz will
be reunited in the
oblivion of the tomb”
Married Harriet despite
objection, left after nine
years to live with Italian
opera singer
Hector Berlioz(1803-1869)

Favored program music
Huge forces
“The creator of the modern
orchestra”
“Generally speaking, my style
is very bold… the prevailing
characteristics of my music are
passionate expression, intense
ardor, rhythmical animations,
and unexpected turns.”
—Hector Berlioz
Berlioz and the Program Symphony

Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)
Born near Lyon, France, Grenoble
Berlioz’ father wanted him to be a doctor; he went to medical school in Paris, but dropped out.
Started serious music study at age 19.
Influenced by Beethoven & Shakespeare
Studied in Rome(Prix de Rome) and returned to Paris to compose.
Studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris.
Wrote music criticism to support himself during his studies.
Studied instrumental effects and learned how they produced sounds.
Wrote an important book on orchestration (how to use the instruments of the orchestra to produce the desired
sounds): Treatise on Instrumentation.
Friends with Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo
This composition is written about Berlioz’s obsessive love for Harriet Smithson. Another composition, “The
Return to Life” is believed to be a marriage proposal to her.

Harold in Italy--a symphony
Romeo and Juliet--a symphony
Requiem--a Mass for the Dead
“L’enfance du Christ” (The Infancy of
Christ)--an oratorio
Te Deum
The Trojans-opera
Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale
Hector Berlioz Other Compositions

I. Romantic Program Music
A. Program music: instrumental music with literary or
pictorial associations
1. program supplied by composer; indicated in title
or explanatory notes
a. suggests specific characters and events, or
general mood or character
2. brought music closer to poetry, painting
3. composers relate works to moral, political issues
B. Romantics cultivated program music over absolute
music
1. absolute (pure) music: without literary or
pictorial meanings

Berlioz and the Symphonie fantastique, Part 1
II. Berlioz and the Symphonie fantastique
A. Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
1. French composer, conductor
2. first great proponent of musical Romanticism in France
3. influenced by Beethoven and Shakespeare
4. infatuated with Shakespearean actress, Harriet Smithson
5. won Prix de Rome and studied in Italy in 1830
6. musical style: intense, bold, passionate
7. master of orchestration: daring originality, bold innovator,
huge orchestral forces
8. output: orchestral overtures, program symphonies, choral
music, three operas, writings about music

The Enjoyment of Music 11th, Shorter Edition
“To render my works properly requires a combination of extreme
precision and irresistible verve, a regulated vehemence, a dreamy
tenderness, and an almost morbid melancholy.”
—Hector Berlioz
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Written during Prix de Rome year
A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent
imagination in a fit of lovesick despair has poisoned
himself with opium. The drug, to weak to kill, plunges
him into a heavy sleep accompanied by strange visions.
The sensations, feelings, and memories are translated
in his sick brain into musical images and ideas. The
beloved one herself becomes for him a melody, a
recurrent theme that haunts him everywhere.
Symphonie fantastique

Symphonie fantastique
1st Movement--“Dreams--Passions”--artist thinks about
beloved
2nd Movement--“A Ball”--artist sees lover at a dance
3rd Movement--“Scene in the Countryside”--artist dreams he
is in the country but then thinks about his lover’s betraying
him
4th Movement-- “March to the Scaffold”--artist’s execution for
killing lover
5th Movement-- “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”--ghosts and
monsters gather for his funeral

B. The program
1. five-movement program symphony
a. I. Reveries, Passions
b. II. A Ball
c. III. Scene in the Fields
d. IV. March to the Scaffold
e. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
2. 2. program by Berlioz: autobiographical
a. infatuation with Harriet Smithson
b. meeting the beloved; ultimate demise of the
artist

c. Romantic era: preoccupation with grotesque and
supernatural
d. Dies irae quoted in last movement
3. idée fixe (fixed idea): recurrent theme
a. represents the beloved (Smithson)
b. unifying thread; literary and musical significance
c. thematic transformation: varied appearances
4. March to the Scaffold, movement IV
a. opium-induced dream
b. artist dreams he has killed the beloved
c. witnesses his own execution

d. instruments in unusual ranges
e. sudden dynamic changes
5. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath, movement V
a. witches’ sabbath, gathered for his funeral
b. beloved comes to infernal orgy
c. Dies irae quoted (“Day of Wrath” from ancient Mass
for the Dead)

Symphonie fantastique, Movement 4
Timbre--composed for a huge orchestra
Berlioz--widely acknowledged as the first great master of
orchestration--the art of arranging music for instruments
Symphony includes novel and spectacular orchestral effects.
Combining timbres of individual instruments and groups of instruments to create
sounds that had never been heard before
Exploiting the range of the instruments and the types of melodies that could best
be played by them

Berlioz “transformed” the melody: i.e., he varied it
for effect, but it was recognizable.
Idée fixe--a melody (represents the beloved) whose
form changes from movement to movement but which
appears at some point in all five movements,
transformed to fit the emotion of the moment
Form of 4th movement:
Introduction A/B/A/B/A/ Coda (two contrasting
sections framed with an Introduction and a Coda
A theme - “gloomy and ferocious”
B theme - “solemn and brilliant”
Idée fixe is heard just prior to the fall of the
guillotine blade (artist thinks of lover before dying)
Symphonie fantastique, Movement 4

C. Listening Guide 26: Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, IV
(1830)
1. March to the Scaffold; Allegretto non troppo
a. sonata-like form, two march themes
b. theme A: downward minor scale
c. theme B: diabolical march tune, brass and
woodwinds
d. idée fixe at end, clarinet: “last thought of love”
e. sudden fortissimo chord: “fall of the blade”
f. ends with loud, triumphant chords; cheers
from the crowd

Symphonie Fantastique, Movement 5
He also asked string players to hit strings with the back
of the bow (“col legno battuta”) to imitate skeletons.
The 5th movement includes another famous melody:
the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) from the Requiem Mass for
the Dead.

Symphonie fantastique, Movements 4 & 5
March to the Scaffold and Dream of a Witches' Sabbath

Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Chapter 37: Personal
Soundtracks: Berlioz and the Program Symphony”
For more resources, please visit https://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic4ess

Chapter 37 Personal Soundtracks

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