Table of Contents
What movement is Symphonie fantastique?
Symphonie fantastique is an epic for a huge orchestra. Through its movements, it tells the story of an artist’s self-destructive passion for a beautiful woman. The symphony describes his obsession and dreams, tantrums and moments of tenderness, and visions of suicide and murder, ecstasy and despair.
Which movement is Berlioz’s Symphonie?
Berlioz called the five movements inspired by this program: “Reveries and Passions,” “A Ball,” “In the Country,” “March to the Scaffold” and “Dream of the Witches Sabbath.” All of the symphony’s innovations — the radical orchestration, eerie harmonies, eccentric rhythms, and the idée fixe representing the beloved (a …
What are the 5 movements of Symphonie fantastique?
Movements
- “Rêveries – Passions” (Daydreams – Passions) – C minor/C major.
- “Un bal” (A Ball) – A major.
- “Scène aux champs” (Scene in the Fields) – F major.
- “Marche au supplice” (March to the Scaffold) – G minor.
- “Songe d’une nuit du sabbat” (Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath) – C minor/C major.
What is the form of the 4th movement of Symphonie fantastique?
Fourth movement: “Marche au supplice” (March to the Scaffold) From Berlioz’s program notes: Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions.
What instrument is Symphonie fantastique?
14. Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubles piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubles English horn), 2 clarinets (1st doubles Eb clarinet), 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, 4 timpani, bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drum, low bells, 2 harps, strings.
What is the second movement of Symphonie fantastique?
Second movement: “Un bal” (A Ball) The second movement has a mysterious-sounding introduction that creates an atmosphere of impending excitement, followed by a passage dominated by two harps; then the flowing waltz theme appears, derived from the idée fixe at first, then transforming it.
Which movement from Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique includes a ranz des vaches?
This mingled hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by dark premonitions, form the subject of the adagio. At the end one of the shepherds resumes his ‘ranz des vaches’; the other one no longer answers. Distant sound of thunder…
What movement of Symphonie fantastique is also known as reveries passion?
First Movement: “Rêveries—Passions” (Reverie—Passions) This melodic image and its model keep haunting him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe. This explains the constant recurrence in all the movements of the symphony of the melody which launches the first allegro.
What genre is Symphonie fantastique?
Romantic
It is one of the most famous Romantic works for orchestra. The official title of the piece is Episode de la Vie d’un Artiste (An Episode in the Life of an Artist), but it is always called by its subtitle Symphonie Fantastique which means Fantasy Symphony.
How many movements does Symphonie fantastique have?
five movements
The Symphonie fantastique has five movements rather than the usual four. While noteworthy, the choice is not unprecedented, for Beethoven had written a five-movement symphony in 1808, the Sixth Symphony, called the Pastoral Symphony.
What happens in the fourth movement of Symphonie fantastique the March to the Scaffold )?
A lovesick artist poisons himself with opium in the fourth movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. During the course of this musical hallucination, he dreams he has killed his beloved, and is marched to his execution.
Which instruments are most heard in Symphonie fantastique?
The symphony is played by an orchestra consisting of 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets (1st doubling E-flat clarinet), 4 bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 2 ophicleides (originally one ophicleide and one serpent), 2 pairs of timpani, snare drum.
Why is Berlioz Symphonie fantastique so shocking?
In the midst of it all, his beloved appears but in a grotesque form. When it was first performed, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was so novel and so shocking that it immediately caused an uproar. Even his friends were astonished that he would put into music something so explicitly personal.
Where can I find media related to Symphonie fantastique?
Wright, Craig, “The Essential Listening to Music” (Schirmer, Cengage Learning 2013). ISBN 978-1-111-34202-9. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Symphonie fantastique. Symphonie fantastique on the Hector Berlioz Website, with links to Scorch full score and program note written by the composer. European Archive.
How many movements are there in Berlioz’s Symphony No 5?
There are five movements, instead of the four movements that were conventional for symphonies at the time: In Berlioz’s own program notes from 1845, he writes:
Who wrote the Symphonie fantastique?
Franz Liszt made a piano transcription of the symphony in 1833 (S.470). Though the Symphonie fantastique calls for only a fairly large orchestra, such conductors as Zubin Mehta and Gustavo Dudamel have conducted performances of the work with orchestras of over 200 players.