Idee Fixe

The theme is either shown as joyful or tragic, depending on the context, whether used to describe his overt emotions in the first movement or in the fourth movement with his somber death. Then, there is the use of orchestration in the last movement, where we are introduced to elaboration of the orchestra that Berlioz puts in order to create the epic final movement. As we see, the string section divides into multiple parts at the opening. Next, the “con sordini” creates a muffle sound with the use of a little piece of the instrument. Then, the gliding glissando glides through the notes to get to the destination, in order for the use of a special clarinet to get the “idée fixe”-mocking fashion. Towards the end, the tubular bells and the bowed/plucked strings come in with the final…

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…

sorcerers and monsters, who have come together for his funeral. Of the entire symphony, this movement is the most revolutionary in terms of sound design. Berlioz orchestrates strange noises, groans and outbursts of laughter – hardly music at all. The world presented is the opposite of rationality and contains the influences of Goethe, Byron and gothic novelists. The high woodwinds play triplets and the sighing falls of the idée fixe are mocked with a sneering glissando. A drumroll in…

Brendel considered Wagner’s operas to be the “summit of musical attainment.” The work that shows his part in musical history the most is the four-part Ring Cycle. Like much Romantic music, it was based on a poem (an Old Norse poem about Siegfriend the Dragon-Slayer). This opera expanded on the thematic transformation of Liszt with something called a leitmotif. There are many heard throughout the operas, including the death leitmotif, the rhine river leitmotif, and the sword leitmotif. There is a…

The piece begins with an eerie atmosphere, where high notes are played into a diminished chord. Then the first part of the prelude begins, consisting of strange noises and what appear to sound like groans and laughter. Some high woodwinds play into the ideé fixe, as a soft drum roll plays with a trumpet joining it. The opening bars repeat, at a semi-higher tone than previously, as a diminishing chord follows. This sequence of music creates the view of a frightening underworld for the listener.…

Beethoven. In its fifth movement, the theme is about death, the supernatural, and afterlife. The chaos sound that is performed by the violin, viola, as well as other string instruments induced craziness emotion and the suffering in the moral sickness. The speed of the violin was fast, thereby showing that Berlioz lost his noble and shy character. The percussion instruments such as the bass drum, bell, and drum built a troop of ghosts, monsters, and sorcerers that gather during the funeral. The…

September 1827 playing in Hamlets’ Romeo and Juliet. It was love at first sight, they married on October 3, 1833 in Paris. “She was his Ophelia” (www.hberlioz.com), sadly their marriage ended from separation in 1844. Berlioz was also famous for writing the Symphonie fantastique in 1830, which is considered to be a program symphony. Program music is music without words that tell a story about something non-musical. Berlioz’s Symphonie fanstastique fits into this category because it uses idée…

Song Cycle: Group of songs that are unified musically or through their texts. Through-Composed (compared to strophic form): Song structrue that is composed from beginning to end, without repetitions of large sections. Foster: Jeanie with the light brown hair Parlor Song: A song accompanied by piano, intende for home entertainment, particualr to 19th century America. Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique IV Program Music (compare to abs music): A compositional style in which a composer selects a simple…

described in the program is called “dream of Witches’ Sabbath” where the character finds himself face to face at a witches Sabbath as the witches make obscene noises and sounds. The introduction starts off with mysteriously sounding orchestral music (creating an eerie feeling) which is intended to represent witches and brooms frolicking about being summoned by horns to come to the event. As we follow the scene the main characters lover is represented by the idee fixe (the main theme) that is…

symphony, but instead of being a symphony portraying something nonmusical, it is a concerto. His program concerto was La Primavera. In Berlioz’s symphony, he used cyclic writing. This form of writing involves quoting a theme and putting it in later movements. Berlioz used this form of writing in Symphonie Fantastique. This form of writing compositions was used by Beethoven, as well. He used cyclic writing in Symphony No. 9. Berlioz looked up to Beethoven and admired him. He and was inspired by…