Hector Berlioz Second Symphony Analysis

Hector Berlioz was born near the French town of Grenoble on December 11th, 1803. Berlioz started music at the much later age of 12, meaning he was never a ‘child prodigy’. After learning enough theory, he began writing small arrangements and compositions.Due to his father’s discouragement, Berlioz never learnt how to play the piano, instead Berlioz became proficient at playing the guitar and flute. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire in 1830. This symphony is the perfect example of a piece of program music (music that tells a story). Each movement has its own programme note from the composer which relates to the story of the music. The main story itself tells a gifted artist who has poisoned himself with opium because of love. There are also records of Berlioz himself being on opium as he composed this symphony, …show more content…
The tempo in this movement changes a lot, it reminds me of a villain chasing the hero in a old school cartoon episode. As the piece nears towards the end, it sounds like that the villains are catching up to the hero and finally catches him and ties him up and throws him in the pot of boiling water and when the piece ends, the witches closes the lid of the pot and the movement ends.
Symphonie Fantastique is an absolutely beautiful work by Berlioz and it is one of the best examples of programme music in the 19th century. There were so many emotions in every movement. This piece is very personal to Berlioz because it is about him and his ex wife who was an irish actress and they got together because she was having some financial problems but they were not happy together so they both ended the relationship. When i was listening to this beautiful piece i could just imagine what Berlioz was feeling and what he intended us, the viewers to imagine when we listen to