What is the story behind Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique?
Symphonie fantastique is a piece of program music that tells the story of an artist gifted with a lively imagination who has poisoned himself with opium in the depths of despair because of hopeless, unrequited love. Berlioz provided his own preface and program notes for each movement of the work.
How was Berlioz influenced by Beethoven?
Beethoven's Influence on Musicians Berlioz greatly admired Beethoven's Sixth Symphony for its connection of each movement to scenes from nature. In his Symphonie fantastique, he extends this idea by subordinating the entire form of the piece to the feverish narrative he has developed to accompany the symphony.
Where did Berlioz find the story for Symphonie fantastique?
In 1827, the 23-year-old Hector Berlioz attended a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Odéon Theatre in Paris; Harriet Smithson, a charismatic Irish actress, was playing Ophelia. Berlioz was smitten and wrote her an impassioned letter – Smithson did not reply.
Why was Symphonie fantastique groundbreaking?
Symphonic revolution The Symphonie fantastique marks a departure from the abstract and strict forms of the Classical period and embraces Romantic ideals: the composer's ability to express his or her individuality, and the existence of a narrative or scene in music.
Was Berlioz a Beethoven fan?
Berlioz was a devoted fan of Beethoven. Hector Berlioz looked to the writings of Shakespeare as the basis for both operas and symphonic works. In the nineteenth century Theobald Boehm improved the flute, making it metal rather than wood.
Who was the inspiration for Symphonie fantastique?
actress Harriet SmithsonBerlioz, like a lot of composers, loved the ladies and his Symphonie fantastique was famously inspired by his stormy relationship with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. He was completely obsessed with her – so much so, in fact, that she initially thought him to be insane.
What happens to the poet's beloved in the Symphonie fantastique?
What happens to the poet's beloved in the Symphonie Fantastique? In his hallucinations and nightmares, he kills her.
What key is Symphonie fantastique?
C majorSymphonie fantastique / KeyC major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel minor is C minor. The C major scale is: Audio playback is not supported in your browser. Wikipedia
What is Berlioz's style?
Berlioz' Romanticism is a fresh, early Romanticism, without excess. Composed in 1830, the Symphonie really continues where Beethoven left off, with the slow-movement “Scene in the Fields” strongly indebted to Beethoven's Pastoral.
What happens at the end of the Symphonie fantastique?
Berlioz's orchestra for Symphonie fantastique was larger than previous symphonies. What happens at the end of the Symphonie fantastique? a. The artist marries his love.
Is Symphonie fantastique classical or romantic?
14 is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period, and is popular with concert audiences worldwide. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire in December 1830.
What did the bells represent in Symphonie fantastique?
“Symphonie fantastique has a critical bell part,” said Mount—specifically for two bells, pitched at C and G, representing funeral rites in the climactic Dream of a Witches' Sabbath movement. “It's a huge part of that piece. And it's played with regularity.
What effect did Beethoven's symphonies have on Berlioz?
More than any other music, it was Beethoven's symphonies that revealed to Berlioz the expressive possibilities of orchestral music.
Which composer was most influenced by Berlioz?
Among the most powerful influences on him were Shakespeare, whose plays were to inspire three major works, and the actress Harriet Smithson, whom he idolized, pursued and, after a bizarre courtship, eventually married .
Why did Berlioz never learn to play piano?
(He himself destroyed a few of his early chamber works and wrote none in his maturity.) In fact, probably uniquely among the great composers, he never learned to play the piano, as he was not groomed by his parents for a musical career.
What inspired Faust Symphony?
108, or simply the "Faust Symphony", is a choral symphony written by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's drama, Faust. The symphony was premiered in Weimar on 5 September 1857, for the inauguration of the Goethe–Schiller Monument there.
What journal did Berlioz write in?
Even though it could be considered artistic sacrilege, Berlioz's writing was often to be found gracing the pages of Journal des débats. Here's a typically reserved cover from the paper, depicting writer Louis-François Bertin bursting out of its pages.
Why do we love Hector Berlioz?
1. He was probably too obsessed with Shakespeare.
What is the octobass?
Even now in lists of ridiculous instruments from throughout the ages, the Octobass makes its presence felt. This insanely large double bass that needs to be played on a stepladder and preferably with a harness and comprehensive health insurance was initially championed by old Hector, who proposed that it become a standard instrument in orchestras across the world. Didn't catch on, though. Can't think why.
What did Debussy call Debussy?
Ravel called him "France's greatest composer" but that he was "a musician of great genius and little talent." But Debussy just called him "a monster". Don't be shy, Claude, let us know how you really feel…
Who wrote Harold in Italy?
He was too good for Paganini. The notoriously devilish violinist and David Garrett lookalike Niccolò Paganini commissioned Berlioz to write the piece that eventually became Harold in Italy, but the hot-headed gadabout derided the initial sketches because they weren't difficult enough.
Is La Damnation de Faust still relevant?
La Damnation de Faust continues to be relevant. Another of Berlioz's biggies, Faust has seen a great many modern and innovative interpretations over the years, including one from Monty Python animator and movie director extraordinaire Terry Gilliam. 9. He was a big fan of the Octobass.
Did Berlioz marry Ophelia?
Berlioz was well into the Bard. So much so, in fact, that he married the actress who played Ophelia in a Paris production of Hamlet, Brit Harriet Smithson, which ended in disaster. Apparently she couldn't speak French and he couldn't speak English but they still managed to have blazing rows.
What did Berlioz do?
The elder son of a provincial doctor, Berlioz was expected to follow his father into medicine, and he attended a Parisian medical college before defying his family by taking up music as a profession. His independence of mind and refusal to follow traditional rules and formulas put him at odds with the conservative musical establishment of Paris. He briefly moderated his style sufficiently to win France's premier music prize – the Prix de Rome – in 1830, but he learned little from the academics of the Paris Conservatoire. Opinion was divided for many years between those who thought him an original genius and those who viewed his music as lacking in form and coherence.
Why is Berlioz mentioned only in passing?
He cites well-known studies of musical history in which Berlioz is mentioned only in passing or not at all, and suggests that this is partly because Berlioz had no models among his predecessors and was a model to none of his successors. "In his works, as in his life, Berlioz was a lone wolf".
What did Berlioz do in Paris?
The horrors of the medical college were mitigated thanks to an ample allowance from his father, which enabled him to take full advantage of the cultural, and particularly musical, life of Paris. Music did not at that time enjoy the prestige of literature in French culture, but Paris nonetheless possessed two major opera houses and the country's most important music library. Berlioz took advantage of them all. Within days of arriving in Paris he went to the Opéra, and although the piece on offer was by a minor composer, the staging and the magnificent orchestral playing enchanted him. He went to other works at the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique; at the former, three weeks after his arrival, he saw Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, which thrilled him. He was particularly inspired by Gluck's use of the orchestra to carry the drama along. A later performance of the same work at the Opéra convinced him that his vocation was to be a composer.
How many operas did Berlioz write?
Berlioz completed three operas, the first of which, Benvenuto Cellini, was an outright failure. The second, the huge epic Les Troyens (The Trojans), was so large in scale that it was never staged in its entirety during his lifetime.
How old was Berlioz when he died?
Berlioz died in Paris at the age of 65.
Where did Berlioz go to school?
In March 1821 Berlioz passed the baccalauréat examination at the University of Grenoble – it is not certain whether at the first or second attempt – and in late September, aged seventeen, he moved to Paris. At his father's insistence he enrolled at the School of Medicine of the University of Paris. He had to fight hard to overcome his revulsion at dissecting bodies, but in deference to his father's wishes, he forced himself to continue his medical studies.
What did Berlioz's father teach him?
Berlioz's father, a respected local figure, was a progressively minded doctor credited as the first European to practise and write about acupuncture. He was an agnostic with a liberal outlook; his wife was a strict Roman Catholic of less flexible views. After briefly attending a local school when he was about ten, Berlioz was educated at home by his father. He recalled in his Mémoires that he enjoyed geography, especially books about travel, to which his mind would sometimes wander when he was supposed to be studying Latin; the classics nonetheless made an impression on him, and he was moved to tears by Virgil 's account of the tragedy of Dido and Aeneas. Later he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and – because his father planned a medical career for him – anatomy.
Overview
Life and career
Berlioz was born on 11 December 1803, the eldest child of Louis Berlioz (1776–1848), a physician, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette Joséphine, née Marmion (1784–1838). His birthplace was the family home in the commune of La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, in south-eastern France. His parents had five more children, three of whom died in infancy; their surviving daughter…
Works
In his 1983 book The Musical Language of Berlioz, Julian Rushton asks "where Berlioz comes in the history of musical forms and what is his progeny". Rushton's answers to these questions are "nowhere" and "none". He cites well-known studies of musical history in which Berlioz is mentioned only in passing or not at all, and suggests that this is partly because Berlioz had no models a…
Reputation and Berlioz scholarship
The first biography of Berlioz, by Eugène de Mirecourt, was published during the composer's lifetime. Holoman lists six other French biographies of the composer published in the four decades after his death. Of those who wrote for and against Berlioz's music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among the most outspoken were musical amateurs such as the lawyer and diarist George …
Recordings
All of Berlioz's major works and most of his minor ones have been commercially recorded. This is a comparatively recent development. In the mid-1950s the international record catalogues listed complete recordings of seven major works: the Symphonie fantastique, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Harold in Italy, Les Nuits d'été, Roméo et Juliette, the Requiem and the Te Deum, and various overtures. Excerpts from Les Troyens were available but there were no complete recordi…
Notes, references and sources
1. ^ IPA: /ˈbɛərlioʊz/ BAIR-lee-ohz; French: [ɛktɔʁ bɛʁljoz] (listen); Franco-Provençal: [ˈbɛrʎo].
2. ^ Although baptised "Louis-Hector", he was always known as Hector. His date of birth was officially recorded as 19th Frimaire of the year XII, as the French Republican Calendar was still in use.
3. ^ Cairns uses "Josephine" as Mme Berlioz's usual name, as does Diana Bickley in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; other writers, including Jacques Barzun and H…
1. ^ IPA: /ˈbɛərlioʊz/ BAIR-lee-ohz; French: [ɛktɔʁ bɛʁljoz] (listen); Franco-Provençal: [ˈbɛrʎo].
2. ^ Although baptised "Louis-Hector", he was always known as Hector. His date of birth was officially recorded as 19th Frimaire of the year XII, as the French Republican Calendar was still in use.
3. ^ Cairns uses "Josephine" as Mme Berlioz's usual name, as does Diana Bickley in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; other writers, including Jacques Barzun and Hugh Macdonald, …
External links
• Free scores by Berlioz at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Free scores by Hector Berlioz in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Finding aid to Hector Berlioz papers at Columbia University at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library