Symphonie Fantastique

Drug-induced hallucinations, love gone wrong, an execution by beheading, and a witchs' sabbath; for the early 19th century, it just doesn't get much more metal than that. Hector Berlioz wrote his Symphonie fantastique while obsessing over, you guessed it, a woman, namely Harriet Smithson, an actress Berlioz first encountered as she played the role of Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. The two eventually married for a short time, but not before Berlioz had written the masterpiece of paranoia, jealousy, and longing he is most famous for.

Symphonie fantastique is what is known as program music, which roughly means while the work is purely instrumental, attempts are made to evoke extra-musical associations such as thoughts, moods, or, in this case, a narrative. This stands in opposition to so-called absolute music, which is instrumental music that stands for itself with no outside referents. In other words, absolute music is, or aspires to be, music for the sake of music. It's more complicated than that, and arguments abound concerning these terms and distinctions, but this is neither the time nor the place for such discussions. With that fun little aside out of the way, it's on to the program and, of course, the music.

Symphonie fantastique is based around the idée fixe, a melody Berlioz used to represent Harriet Smithson. The tune shows up in every movement in different ways, having a different connotation for the 'action' of the symphony each time depending on the instrument carrying the melody and where it falls in the narrative. The first movement introduces the main character, 'the artist,' as well as the idée fixe. The artist is at various times tormented, overjoyed, and infuriated, but forevermore obsessed, with the idée fixe.

The second movement finds the artist in many different situations, or as Berlioz put it 'in the most diverse situations in life,' yet the idée fixe follows him everywhere. Both at a festive party and along in the countryside, the artist can not escape it. In the third movement, the artist is in a field listening to the duet of two shepherds. In the midst of tranquility, the artist hopes that soon he will no longer be lonely. However, these thoughts are interrupted by fear: what if she betrays me? The movement ends with thunder, then silence.

The fourth movement sees a drastic turn of events. Tormented by his love, the artist takes a near fatal dose of opium. In the hallucinations that follow, he believes himself to have killed his love and is being led to the scaffold for his execution. A march begins, symbolizing the march to the spot of execution. Just before the ax falls, a shortened form of the idée fixe returns as the last thoughts of the artist before his death. The movement ends with a 'rolling' figure in the orchestra, thought to represent the artist's head tumbling toward the basket.

The 5th and most famous movement deserves to have Berlioz's own notes shown:

"He sees himself at a witches’ sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies irae."

The artist now believes himself dead, and what is worse, his beloved is now part of a grotesque ritual and no longer the elegant idée fixe of his memory. The Dies irae, a tune from the Catholic Requiem Mass, is brought in to symbolize the artist's death, but also perhaps the death of his obsession. Could it be that the artist, through the horrific visions of his opium hallucinations, was able to exorcise his obsession and move on with his life, did the death mean something more literal, or was Berlioz just giving a big end to a bad trip?

A performance of the fifth movement can be seen below. If you would like to know more about the symphony, the San Francisco Symphony has an absolutely KILLER site for the work here that includes commentary, writings by Berlioz, a more thorough explanation of the idée fixe, and more. It really is an excellent site. Until next time, lay off the opium.