Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique Hector Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique at the age of 27. He based the program on his own impassioned life and transferred his memoirs into his best- known program symphony. The story is about a love sick, depressed young artist, while in his despair poisons himself with opium. His beloved is represented throughout the symphony by the symbolic idee fixe. There are five movements throughout symphony. The program begins with the 1st movement: Reveries, Passions symbolizing the artist's life prior to meeting his beloved. This is represented as a mundaness and indefinable searching or yearning, until suddenly, he meets her and his longing abruptly ceases and is replaced by volcanic love. The soaring melody becomes the Idee fixe and is introduced in this section. The 2nd movement: A Ball. This movement is representative of the gala ball where he once again sees his beloved. This section is a dance movement in three-part form. The Idee fixe reappears in waltz time. The 3rd movement: Scene in the Fields. This section represents a tranquil interval. It is a summer evening in the country and he hears two shepherds piping. The tranquil moment of the quiet summer evening alone with the pastoral duet fills his heart with an unfamiliar calm. Suddenly she appears and her appearance causes an emotional response of sorrowful loneliness. The 4th movement: March To the Scaffold. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, he is condemned to die and is being lead to the scaffold. At the end of this movement the Idee fixe reappears for a short instance and the reappearance becomes symbolic of the last thought of love that is interrupted by the axe. The 5th movement: Dream of a Witch?s Sab... ... middle of paper ... ...ty has arisen and then suddenly, all is quiet and the Idee fixe, the sweet melody of the clarinet is heard . Without warning the axe has fallen, the sweet clarinet melody is cut off by the crash of a symbol and then the coda. My Impression Harriet Smithson should be proud to have this symphonie written about her. The symphonie fantastique fourth movement relates a quality of energy that is consistant with inapropriate mood changes that can sometimes be captured when in a dream-like state. The march to the scafold begins to become disoriented when rather then a death march, it starts to develop a pompous overtone, and become more or a grand prominade, but this is part of the composer?s genous. He composed the music to what would be the disjunct qualities of a dream-like state. This music relates an abstractness that is symbolic of the mind in a semi- conscious state.
Berlioz also presents a particular difficulty of musicianship of being closer to the true sources of music than to its German, italian, or French conventions. His melody is abundant and extended and is often disconcerting to the lover of four-bar phrases.As George Benard Shaw said “Call no conductor sensitive in the highest degree to musical impressions until you have heard him in Berlioz and Mozart.” Being compared to Mozart is a great thing, because honestly nowadays everyone knows who Mozart is no one would really pull out that they knew who Berlioz is. Later in Berlioz composing career he became a very Influential music critic. He wrote about Giacomo Meyerbeer, Mikhail Glinka, Paganini, Liszt and other musicians. He completed the opera “Benvenuto Cellini” which took four years from 1834-1838. Later in 1838 his “Harold en Italie” was performed at the Paris Conservatoire. After being gone in Belgium and Germany, Berlioz returned to paris. His friend came up with the idea that they should do concerts in Russia. Berlioz was invited to Russia twice, each tour brought him financial gain beyond his expectations. The Requiem of 1837, requested compose of another work for a public ceremony “Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale” for military band, chorus,and strings, for the 10th anniversary of the July Revolution(1840). After many
The musical score proficiently provides the viewers with a sense of what is happening in the scene which could not be communicated through text. Dramatic music is played for Creon’s entrance; this immediately communicates to us that he is a man of great importance and power. When Antigone enters after being arrested, the music is dynamic and tense. This conveys the seriousness and desperate atmosphere of the scene. The score is also a representation of the varying moods of the characters. An example of this is when Antigone is anxiously trying to appeal her sentence. The music makes the audience drawn is drawn to feel sympathy and pity her when she is preaching her views on death. For instance, a solemn melody is played when Haemon’s dead corpse is brought to King Creon. Creon grieves by himself as he is overcome with devastation caused by his foolish actions; his emotions are intensified by the sorrowful and sombre background music. The music is able to complement the play, while accentuating the more significant events.
2. What is the significance of the scene to the play as a whole? (try to dig deep here - think about themes, character development, tone, etc.)
In an attempt to change his mind, they surround him, grabs his hands and begins walking backward deepening their plié with each step until he breaks their hand connection. With the music, done by Serge Prokofieff, playing through the entire piece in a soft inconsistent pattern that intensify when it is accompanying the son’s movements when he begins to dance. His phrase that expresses his desire to be free, with an enthusiastic, rapid, intense speed, the son does a series of strong, wide movements where he uses the space around him with different walks, runs and jumps. When he dance under himself, he is does a series of spins that soften the choreography as if he a somewhat remorseful for wanting to leave the people that loves and cares about
In the first movement, Reverie, Passions, it opens up with a slow introduction; largo. Its dynamic is piano and tranquillo. Longing and despair are the emotions being represented in the introduction. They introduce this by playing violins and flutes creating an appassionato feeling. Berlioz introduces the idée fixe – fixed idea. In this symphony, it symbolizes the beloved or the women with whom he’s fallen in love. Since the first movement is in sonata form, the exposition goes on with two themes that are effectively being used through the work. Then, the development starts where theme fragmentations create tension. Rising phrases is what’s creating the tension. This tension represents the yearning the artist has with the idée fixe. After that,
The shepherd’s simplicity is revealed through his depiction of the romantic scene through the use of the pastoral landscape in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." The shepherd invites his love to sit with him on the rocks, where they would watch the “shepherds feed their flocks/ by shallow rivers, to whose falls/ melodious birds sing madrigals” (6 – 8). In this scene, the season is of spring, with young, fresh land, bright and sunny weather, singing birds, and gentle rivers. The narrator's “aa, bb” rhyming scheme suggests a uniformity that he expects the weather to follow: the narrator here believes that the weather would always remain this well for he and his love to enjoy. The rather consistent stressing pattern in lines seven and eight ( { stressed, stressed|| un, u...
Symphony No. 6 is one of Beethoven's few programmatic works and describes a county scene. It is titled "Recollections of country life". It has 5 movements, unusual for a classical symphony. The first movement is in sonata form and is titled "Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country". It has two beautiful rustic themes. The second movement is titled "Scene at the brook" and depicts a bubbling stream on a calm day. It is also in sonata form with two flowing themes. The third movement is a scherzo and depicts a country dance being titled "Happy gathering of country folk". It is an unusual scherzo with the scherzo section played only once before continuing to the trio. After the trio, instead of returning to the scherzo, a short section in 2/4 time interrupts. Then the scherzo is played followed by the trio again. The 2/4 section appears a second time, followed by the scherzo one last time. The dancing in the third movement is interrupted by raindrops ushering in the fourth movement, titled "Thunderstorm".
One thing that is noticeable of all three scenes, is that they are mainly seem from the perspective of the puritans. Therefore, since the scenes are in terms of the puritans’ perspectives,
In Act III Scene I of his opera Pelléas et Mélisande, Claude Debussy employs methods of voice leading by step and tritone, several repetitive and stressed motives, and an overarching transition throughout the scene from E minor to E major, overall displaying the themes of innocence, lust, desire, and betrayal. The overarching voicing leading through the scene takes us from E minor to E major, by stepping down to the middle goal of C in measure 105, and then steps up to return to E in measure 180. Noting the significance of this movement, one should notice what aspects of the text are highlighted by stepping to a newly stressed note area.
In the stanza “On cold trains and windy platforms will sit very straight at the edge of his seat while the shadows like long fingers over the haystacks that sweep past keep shocking him because he is riding backwards”. This stanza represents that this was a hard time in her father’s life and him sitting on the edge of his seat represents him being on the last stages of his life because it shows him being close to death. The shadows like long fingers indicate that many obstacles have come in his life but death is also approaching him. The remaining lines shows that his life is basically declining backwards while he can only watch it take place. Moving on, the haystacks represent memories about him which he finds difficult to remember. This results in him being scared because he is unable to treasure
The final two instances demonstrate the extreme emotional power that music holds over the lives of individuals. In defense of his bond with Antonio, Shylock invokes animal imagery as a strong emotional defense against the forfeiture of his bond. Perpetually invoking these images, Shylock also includes a line which states, “when the bagpipe sings i’th’ nose; Cannot contain their urine; for affection; Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood” (4.1.49-51). Shylock recognizes the immense power that music has over emotions. Music is able to bypass all cognitive faculties and permeate the deepest fathoms of our emotional capabilities, thus exploiting them. To find music included in a passage riddled with animal imagery permits a reader to understand the intensity of music, being a conduit that can access an individual’s deepest fears. Fear is the inherent system that drives animals to survive, much like the way it drives Shylock to maintain his way of
The gentle contrast between the voice and piano accompaniment creates a subtle tension that underlies the piece and emphasizes the dichotomy and separation of the sky and the earth throughout the poem. While they are detached and dissimilar, the melodies lean into each other and long to come together. There is a yearning to join, intertwine, and expand into each other.
Also he finds his place in his daughter’s life and how he is finding where he stands in the world and in his daughter’s world. This is unique for the father to show so much compassion because not all fathers can be like this and care so much. Along with this, we notice some imagery and metaphors being use, as well as imagination. When it says “I remember I thought you looked like an angel, wrapped in pink, so soft and warm, you’ve had me wrapped around your finger, Since the day you were born”, also “Chase your dreams but always know The road that will lead you home again”, both showing imagery and imagination because you are imaging a father holding his daughter is his arms looking at her. Along with this, you see her growing and moving on by seeing that if anything happens, home will still be home at her father’s house. We
Before I look at scene 3 it is important to look at the first scene of
Mamzelle Aurlie continues her thought process by presenting how she sobbed like a man and not like a woman because her sobs were loud and they shredded her soul and spirit one step at a time. When the author includes this detail into the end of the story to wrap her piece up, I feel very sympathetic and sorry for Mamzelle Aurlie to see that she finally had importance in her life to make her feel appreciated and loved but the loss of the children in her home made every little aspect of her life empty and meaningless. Also, the part where Mamzelle Aurlie’s soul is ripped to shreds makes an image in my mind of how her mind and heart seem so useless in her head. This heavy wordplay leaves a negative and brutal consonance in the tone and it magnifies the real amount of pain that is actually felt by Mamzelle Aurlie by a ton. However, the statement reaches to my heart and I can feel the pain that she feels by losing the very things that gave her happiness and hope for a better life for herself and them. Reading these last few thoughts that Chopin had used to end her writing made me sorrow for Mamzelle Aurlie even more and it has made me appreciate the love and spirit that my household