Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 (1830)
"Episode in the Life of an Artist" in five movements; ends with the Dies irae in a witches' sabbath
Recording: Igor Markevitch, Orchestre Lamoureux · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Music
Hector Berlioz
1803–1869 · French
Romantic
Berlioz was the great French Romantic, a visionary orchestrator whose Symphonie fantastique (1830) turned the symphony into autobiographical drama. Largely self-taught and no pianist, he thought directly in orchestral colour, and his Treatise on Instrumentation shaped generations of composers.
How to spot them
- ▸Huge, brilliantly coloured orchestra: harps, cor anglais, offstage brass, col legno strings, tolling bells
- ▸Programme music with a recurring theme (the idée fixe) standing for a beloved woman
- ▸Clues about opium dreams, a witches' sabbath, a march to the scaffold, or the Irish actress Harriet Smithson
- ▸Grand literary subjects: Virgil's Aeneid, Goethe's Faust, Byron's Childe Harold
Key works — listen
Harold en Italie, Op. 16 (1834)
Symphony with solo viola after Byron, prompted by Paganini
Grande messe des morts (Requiem), Op. 5 (1837)
Gigantic Requiem with four offstage brass bands in the Tuba mirum
Le carnaval romain (Roman Carnival Overture), Op. 9 (1844)
Concert overture built from his opera Benvenuto Cellini, with a whirling saltarello
Recording: (See Musopen for author information) · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
La Damnation de Faust, Op. 24 (1846)
"Légende dramatique" after Goethe; includes the Hungarian (Rákóczi) March
Les Troyens (1856–1858)
Five-act epic opera after Virgil's Aeneid; never staged complete in his lifetime
Quick-fire facts
- •The Symphonie fantastique's five movements: Rêveries – Passions; Un bal; Scène aux champs; Marche au supplice; Songe d'une nuit du sabbat.
- •The symphony was inspired by his obsession with the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, whom he married in 1833.
- •He won the Prix de Rome in 1830 after several failed attempts, with the cantata La Mort de Sardanapale.
- •Born at La Côte-Saint-André, he was sent to Paris to study medicine before turning to music.
- •His Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes (1844) became a standard orchestration textbook.
- •Harold en Italie arose from Paganini's request for a viola showpiece; Paganini later gave Berlioz 20,000 francs.
- •He also wrote the song cycle Les Nuits d'été, the dramatic symphony Roméo et Juliette and the comic opera Béatrice et Bénédict.
- •He was an influential music critic, and his Mémoires are a classic of musical autobiography.
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press) — Berlioz, (Louis-)Hector
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Hector Berlioz