On September 11, 1827, Hector Berlioz attended a performance of Hamlet at the Odeon in which the Irish-born
actress Harriet Smithson performed the role of Ophelia. Overwhelmed by her beauty and charismatic stage presence, he
fell desperately in love. A month later, the 24-year-old composer
was able to pull himself together long enough to write his friend
from medical school, Ferdinand Laforest, about his infatuation:
"...[L]et me tell you, you don't know what love is, whatever you may say about feeling it deeply [for your friend]. For you, it's not that rage, that fury, that delirium which takes possession of all one's faculties, which renders one capable of anything. You would not be the man to lose yourself in pleasure over the person you love. In that you are lucky, and I would never want you to experience the unbearable suffering to which I have fallen prey since your departure."
Artist that he was, Berlioz found a way to channel the enormous
emotional upheaval of l'affaire Smithson into something he could
control--a "fantastic symphony" that took as its subject the experiences
of a young musician in love.
More than the sublimation of his obsession with an unattainable
woman, the Symphonie fantastique was also Berlioz's attempt to
get her attention. It took shape in his mind during the course
of 1829, and was set down in a period of about six weeks, from
early March to mid-April of 1830. For the Marche au supplice,
Berlioz recycled the Marche des Gardes from his ill-fated opera
Les francs-juges, linking it to the symphony with a fleeting reference
to the idee fixe. This device--which was to attain significance
in the works of Franz Liszt, and, later on, in the music of numerous
Russian composers -- is just one aspect of the revolutionary treatment
of melody Berlioz introduces in the Symphonie fantastique. More
remarkable still are the score's formal audacity and brilliantly
innovative orchestration, which together make it one of the seminal
works of Romanticism.
The Symphonie fantastique received its premiere on Sunday, December
5, 1830 at the Conservatoire, Francois-Antoine Habeneck conducting.
Liszt and Spontini were among those in attendance. In the two
years that followed, Berlioz made extensive revisions to the score,
and his headstrong courtship of Smithson unfolded as if it had
been scripted by Balzac. On October 3, 1833, the two were married.
The detailed program, written by Berlioz himself and published
prior to the work's premiere, leaves no doubt that he conceived
of the Symphonie fantastique as a romantically heightened self-portrait.
I. Reveries -- Passions
A young musician, afflicted with that moral complaint which a
celebrated writer [Chateaubriand] calls "undirected emotionalism,"
sees the woman of his dreams and falls hopelessly in love. Each
time her image comes into his mind, it evokes a musical thought
[represented by an idee fixe] that is impassioned in character,
but also noble and shy, as he imagines her to be.
II. A Ball (Midi - 120K)
The artist finds himself in the swirl of a party, but the beloved
image appears before him and troubles his soul.
III. Scene in the Country
In the distance, two shepherds play a ranz des vaches in dialogue
[solo oboe and English horn]. The pastoral setting, the gentle
evening breeze, the hopeful feelings he has begun to have--all
conspire to bring to his spirit an unaccustomed calm, and his
thoughts take on a more cheerful cast. He hopes not to be lonely
much longer. But his happiness is disturbed by dark premonitions.
What if she is deceiving him! One of the shepherds resumes his
playing, but the other makes no response.... In the distance,
thunder. Solitude. Silence.
IV. March to the Scaffold. (Midi - 107K)
Convinced that his love is unrequited, the artist takes an overdose
of opium. It plunges him into a sleep accompanied by horrifying
visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, has been condemned
and led to the scaffold, and is witnessing his own execution.
The procession advances to a march that is now somber and savage,
now brilliant and solemn. At its conclusion the idee fixe returns, like a final thought of the beloved cut, off
by the fatal blow.
V. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath (Midi - 164K)
He sees himself in the midst of a frightful throng of ghosts,
witches, monsters of every kind, who have assembled for his funeral.
Strange noises, groans, bursts of laughter, distant cries. The
beloved melody again reappears, but it has lost its modesty and
nobilty; it is no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque; it is she, coming to the sabbath. A joyous
roar greets her arrival.... She joins in the devilish orgy.... A funeral knell, a parody of the Dies
irae. A sabbath round-dance. The Dies irae and the round-dance are combined.
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