The Classical Music Book

162

INSTRUMENTATION

IS AT THE HEAD OF

THE MARCH

SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE (1830),

HECTOR BERLIOZ

T

hroughout his career,

French composer Hector

Berlioz explored the format

of the programmatic symphony—

a mood-evoking work influenced

by subjects outside of music, such

as literature and art. It was his

Symphonie fantastique, however,

composed early in his career, that

proved to be his most successful

and enduring work in the genre.

Berlioz’s inspiraton

In 1827, as a 23-year-old music

student, Berlioz went to see

a performance in Paris of

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

starring the Irish actress Harriet

Smithson as Juliet. It proved to be

a fateful encounter, because Berlioz

fell in love with Smithson and

would expend much energy over

the next few years pursuing her.

During the course of this

infatuation, he felt compelled to

write a piece that would describe

his heightened passion and its

attendant joys and sorrows. He

intended its performance to launch

his career with a bold stroke and

at the same time dazzle Smithson.

The resulting piece Symphonie

fantastique premiered at the Paris

Conservatoire on December 5, 1830,

and a printed synopsis of the “plot”

was supplied.

Love and death

The title suggests a symphony

of the imagination, while its

subtitle—“Episode in the life of

an artist”—hints at the work’s

autobiographical element, although

its descriptive program (which

Berlioz provided to audiences)

focuses more on fantasy than

reality. In the first movement, a

young musician awakens to find

love in the shape of an unknown

beautiful woman. Her image

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

The programmatic

symphony

BEFORE

1808 Beethoven premieres

his Sixth Symphony, the

“Pastoral,” which the composer

insists is “more expression of

feeling than tone-painting.”

1824 Beethoven’s Ninth

Symphony ends with a choral

setting of a text taken from

German poet Friedrich

Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.”

AFTER

1848–1849 Liszt composes

Ce qu’on entend sur la

montagne, the first symphonic

poem, based on a poem by

Victor Hugo.

1857 First performance

of Liszt’s Faust Symphony,

which he dedicated to Berlioz.

No one who hears this

symphony here in Paris,

played by Berlioz’s orchestra,

can help believing that

he is hearing a marvel

without precedent.

Richard Wagner

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