On the first day of class, we were asked the question, what is music? My response was that music is like another language, that tells stories, records history, and a way to solve problems. Which I still agree with, but I now just look at music from a different angle. Now the question is not so much what is music, but what can you do with it. The technical part, such as dynamics, tone color, and pitch, only lays a foundation and without a good foundation, you don’t have nothing to build off of. Don’t get me wrong, these three elements of music are very important and you can do a number of infinite things with them, but without these elements, music would not be music. Although the technical part of music is not my favorite, you still have to
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This symphony contains five movements that tells the story of when he fell in love with Harriet, a famous actor from England. He first falls in love with Harriet when he sees her for the first times in one of her plays. After some time of thinking, he begins to express his feelings through music. The first movement introduces the idée fixe, which is the Harriet melody that is very important throughout the rest of the composition. For the second movement, he goes to a ball to get his mind off of her, but since he is madly in love with her, he sees her there, and again the idée fix is played. But remember that Harriet is just a figment of his imagination, but his love is so strong, he sees her everywhere he goes. As for the third movement, he decides to go out to the country side of Paris and as he is strolling along, once again he sees Harriet. By the fourth movement, he has had it with Harriet and says if he cannot have her, then one can. So he decides to kill himself by poisoning himself, but did not quite take enough to kill him. As he is “dying,” he begins to have visions that he killed Harriet and is soon beheaded. Lastly for the fifth movement, he is in the underground world, lost and confused. Once again, he sees Harriet, but this time she is a witch and is mocking him, once more, the idée fixe is played. The idée fixe pretty much untied the whole composition and was general a whole new idea or element Berlioz invented himself. Soon after, composers soon took his idea and started using it in their own music. Berlioz made history with his new idea. Lastly, when he first composed Symphonie Fantastique, Harriet happens to be there, and she soon realizes that the composition is about her. Later she meets up with him and the get married after some time. So after a long time of waiting, Berlioz finally gets
This symphony contains five movements that tells the story of when he fell in love with Harriet, a famous actor from England. He first falls in love with Harriet when he sees her for the first times in one of her plays. After some time of thinking, he begins to express his feelings through music. The first movement introduces the idée fixe, which is the Harriet melody that is very important throughout the rest of the composition. For the second movement, he goes to a ball to get his mind off of her, but since he is madly in love with her, he sees her there, and again the idée fix is played. But remember that Harriet is just a figment of his imagination, but his love is so strong, he sees her everywhere he goes. As for the third movement, he decides to go out to the country side of Paris and as he is strolling along, once again he sees Harriet. By the fourth movement, he has had it with Harriet and says if he cannot have her, then one can. So he decides to kill himself by poisoning himself, but did not quite take enough to kill him. As he is “dying,” he begins to have visions that he killed Harriet and is soon beheaded. Lastly for the fifth movement, he is in the underground world, lost and confused. Once again, he sees Harriet, but this time she is a witch and is mocking him, once more, the idée fixe is played. The idée fixe pretty much untied the whole composition and was general a whole new idea or element Berlioz invented himself. Soon after, composers soon took his idea and started using it in their own music. Berlioz made history with his new idea. Lastly, when he first composed Symphonie Fantastique, Harriet happens to be there, and she soon realizes that the composition is about her. Later she meets up with him and the get married after some time. So after a long time of waiting, Berlioz finally gets