. . . as useless and dangerous for another will to oppose mine . . . as it is to try to keep gunpowder from exploding

Self-sufficient, abstract play with sound pattern?

Narrative in tones?

Program (plot, title, extra-musical association):Increase music’s expressive power?

Or limit it?

The Aesthetic Problem of Program Music:

Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique (1830),Basics:

•genre = program symphony

•full program (not just programmatic title)

•idée fixe

•5 movements instead of conventional 4 (Likely modeled on Beethoven’s 6th or “Pastorale Symphony”)

Main melody for Berlioz Symph. Fantastique

Returns (often varied) in all 5 movements (thematic unity)

Autobiographical: represents Berlioz’s beloved

Harriet Smithson

Symphonie Fantastique, 1st movement: Daydreams-Passions

A. Biography in musical tones? or . . .

B. Movement in Sonata Form?

•Idée fixe = first theme

•Idée fixe varied =second theme (on dominant)

•Idée fixe varied (development)

•Idée fixe returns (recapitulation)

•Idée fixe recalled in slow tempo at end (coda)

Symphonie Fantastique, 2nd movement: A Ball

A. 2nd Movement = Waltz (instead of Minuet or Scherzo)1. Takes place of symphonic dance movement

2. Programmatic function as musical portrayal of a masked ball

He encounters the loved one at a dance in the midst of the tumult of a brilliant party.The beloved image appears before him and troubles his peace of mind.

Symphonie Fantastique, 2nd movement: A Ball

A. 2nd Movement = Waltz (instead of Minuet or Scherzo)

B. Berlioz as Master of Orchestration

Great Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration (1843)

C. Idée fixe: thematic unity or “the image of the beloved”??

1. Takes place of symphonic dance movement

2. Programmatic function as musical portrayal of a masked ball

Symphonie Fantastique, 3rd movement: Scene in a Meadow

(functions as slow movement)

Having become convinced that his love is not returned, he poisons himself with opium; he has been condemned, led to the scaffold, and

now is witnessing his own execution.

Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement: March to the Scaffold

1830 Having found out for certain that the woman he adores not only does not return his love but is incapable of understanding it and, moreover, is unworthy of it, he poisons himself with opium.

1832 Having found out for certain that the woman he adores does not return his love, he poisons himself with opium.

1833 In despair at seeing his passion misunderstood and scorned, he poisons himself with opium.

1836 Having found out for certain that his passion is misunderstood, he poisons himself with opium.

1855 Having become convinced that his love is not returned, he poisons himself with opium.

Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement: “March to the Scaffold”

1. Introduction: opium-drugged artist (or motivic fragmentation)?

2. “Somber and Ferocious” or First Theme Varied 5x?

a. Theme in Cello/Bass (descending scale) b. Theme + soft countermelody in Bassoon c-d. Theme in Violins, faster countermelody in cellos and

basses (2x) e. Theme inverted, pizzicato (plucked) in cellos and basses + rapid countermelody for bassoon3. Brilliant and Stately Procession or Contrasting Theme?)

4. Themes developed and recapitulated

5. Coda with idée fixe

Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement: Witches Sabbath

(Listening Tips)

A. Idée fixe transformed (beauty to beast)

B. Mocks Gregorian Chant “Dies irae” by playing in diminution (and dbl. dim.)

Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement: Witches Sabbath

C. Witches Theme treated as fugato (fugue within larger mvt.) and finally combined with Dies irae chant

Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement: Witches Sabbath

D. Col legno (with the wood) effect

Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement: Witches Sabbath

Berlioz’s aesthetics vs.

Music’s Powers of Representation

The Crux:

The aim of the story line is by no means to copy faithfully what the composer has tried to present in orchestral terms . . . on the contrary it is precisely to fill in the gaps that the use of musical language unavoidably leaves.

He knows very well that music can take the place of neither word nor picture. He has never had the absurd intention of expressing abstractions or moralqualities, but rather passions and feelings.

Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement: Witches Sabbath, conclusion