Elements of Romanticism seen in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique op 14 - Research Paper Example

Elements of Romanticism seen in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique op 14 The Symphonie Fantastique op 14, written by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) is one of the best examples of music from the Romantic period, embodying the elements of the era through both its expressions and its background. The music is expressed through an emotional element which is the foundation of the Romantic period. The theme of the symphony ends with a supernatural element which was of great fascination to the Romantics. The story is somewhat autobiographical in nature, the protagonist of the piece a young musician who is heartbroken. The Symphonie Fantastique op 14 has the elements of Romanticism that define the philosophies of the era. Romanticism Romanticism was a movement from the 19th century that was defined by a sense of awe for the world. It was the sense of mystery that was in the world, rather than any clarity, that intrigued the Romantics. The mystical world that surrounded them was particularly interesting in regard to the concept of evil. With a sense of abandoning intellect, the romantics focused on emotion and the imagination, where feelings were the replacement for the reason that dictated the structures of the Classical period. Truth was understood by the emotional context of one’s belief in what was true, thus creating a dichotomy where truth was both a fiction and a non-fiction. Keats wrote that “I am certain but nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections, and the truth of imagination. What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth” (Hoffer, 2009, p. 156). Within this theoretical framework for the movement, a growing distrust of science and reason shadowed the artistic creations of the period and philosophy was considered synonymous with science (Hoffer, 2009, p. 156). The Middle Ages, for those in the Classic period, was considered the Dark Ages, as they did not hold much in the way of scientific achievement and reasoned thought. However, the Romantics thought of the Middle Ages as a time of great heroics, filled with adventure and mysticism. The literature of the Romantic period is filled with heroic tales that are set in the Middle Ages. One of the central themes during the period was based upon the struggle between good and evil, the tension between heroic intent and the adversary of that intent. The urban landscape was contrasted against the natural world, thus the fascination with a time that had not seen the industrial revolution. The natural world was of great interest to the Romantics. The Story The Symphonie Fantastique is a piece that was written with a specific story framing the texture of the work. In his program, Berlioz took great pains to tell the story of his work, describing the emotions and the symbolism so that his audience would understand the work. The symphony has five movements; “Reveries - Passions“, “Un bal” (The Ball), “Scene aux Champs” (Scene in the Countryside), “Marche au Supplice” (March to the Scaffold), and “Songe d’une nuit de sabbat” (Dream of the Witches Sabbath). The story opens with a young musician having poisoned himself with opium because of being heartsick with love. While the dose was not enough to kill him, he has been lead down into a dream state in which his visions are interpreted through visual music. The woman who has caused him this ache has taken the form of a melody that runs through his visions, a series of sounds that represent her and are heard throughout his visions (Berlioz, 1997, p. v). The first movement, “Reveries and Passions“, is a series of emotions, swirling around the musician and reminding him of the time before he knew his love. He remembers great highs and depressive lows, his mind swirling with the emotional nature of his life before he knew her. Berlioz (1997) then says “ he remembers the ardent love with which she suddenly inspired him; he thinks of his almost insane anxiety of mind, and his raging jealousy, of his reawakening love, of his religious consolation” (p. v). From the first movement, the second movement becomes an active stage of the story. The movement, called “Une Bal” is set in a ballroom within which he eventually finds his lost love. The third movement, “Scene aux Champs” takes place in a countryside, the music becoming an intertwining of a Swiss tune that is used to call the sheep. The emotion of the piece is that of tranquility and hope, the musician having a content imagery within the context of the setting. Berlioz (1997) wrote “And then she appears once more. His heart stops beating…painful forebodings fill his soul. ‘She could prove false to him!’ One of the shepherds resumes the melody , but the other answers him no more…Sunset…distant rolling of thunder…loneliness…silence.”(p. v). The shepherds had been symbolic of the lovers, the two entwined in love and in purpose, but when he realizes his fears once more, she is gone, leaving the lone shepherd to play the gathering tune alone. The fourth movement takes a terrible turn. The musician kills his love and is condemned to die at the gallows, hung as a murderer. This movement is a march, describing the long walk towards his death. The march vacillates between being somber and embodying the wildness that fear can evoke, the tones both brilliant then solemn, with outbursts that tumble up the steps with the musician. For a moment, the idea of love comes back to the musician, followed by the harsh blow of death (Berlioz, 1997, p. vi). The final movement, an oddity in symphonies’ at this time were only four movements is “Songe d’une nuit de sabbat”, or “Dream of the Witches Sabbath” (Hoffer, 2009, p. 155). In this movement he “dreams that he is present at a witches’ dance, surrounded by horrible spirits, amidst sorcerers and monsters in many fearful forms, who have come to attend his funeral” (Berlioz, 1997, p. vi). He hears terrible and violent sounds, but soon he hears the integration of the melody that represents his love. The tone of the melody has changed, no longer sweet and demure, but vulgar and grotesque, its tempo and nature changed to that of a dance. His love comes to join the witches’ dance, the end of the piece a grotesque orgy with the Dies irae intertwined with the grotesque dance in a cacophony of the horror of the scene. This ends the symphony (Berlioz, 1997, p. iv). According to Boulez and Nattiez (1986), the piece Lielo was written by Berlioz as a compliment to the Symphonie Fantastique and was intended to follow the symphony with very specific instructions on how it should be orchestrated. In the first half of the work, the orchestra is behind a curtain with only an actor visible. During the second half, the curtain is raised and all the players are visible, thus with the normal set up of the orchestra, this staging can be very difficult. This was a hallmark of the way in which the composer created unusual staging for his music, the orchestration specific to the number of instruments needed that always included an excess and some odd instruments to create specific sounds within the work. In Symphonie Fantastique, the seating arrangement includes the “oboe echoing the cor anglais” (Boulez and Nattiez, 1986, p. 220). The perfect orchestration as given in Berlioz’s treatise on instrumentation includes: 120 violins, 30 harps, 30 pianos, and 4 jingling Johnnies (Boulez and Nattiez, 1986, p. 220). Berlioz and the Symphonie Fantastique op. 14 In a discussion of the affect of Rome on the artist, Wrigley (2007) uses Berlioz as an example of the effect that having spent time in the city could have upon the work that was done after the visit. Berlioz hated Rome. Wrigley (2007) states that Berlioz said in his memoir that “Rome is the most stupid and prosaic city I know: it’s no place for anyone with a head or a heart” (p. 12). Berlioz is reported to go on to speak of Rome as a vulgar city associated with a great deal of sadness. Despite what he said of the city, the work that followed was based on Italian themes. His Symphonie Fantastique, which may be autobiographical in nature, is thought to have come from an experience he had in Rome. Wrigley suggests that “the lines of demarcation between subjective interiority and external trauma are intricately blurred in Berlioz’s work in a strong topology…which draws on the composer’s experience in Rome” (p. 13). In an article in The Academy from 1869, a discussion of the performance of Symphonie Fantastique is made as it was to be performed for the first time in London. This would have been in April, shortly after his death. The article refers to the third movement as a perfect example of program music, while the format is fairly traditional. The article mentions the femme aimee, the melody that represents the love of the musician that is found within every movement. Of the piece, The Academy (1869) states that “It is impossible to describe the infinite variety, the richness, delicacy, and also power, of the orchestration throughout the work” (p. 328). The article portrays the symphony as one of mystical purity, of a program work that exemplifies the genre. Symphonie Fantastique and Romanticism The Symphonie Fantastique might be considered one of the best examples of Romantic period music. The piece strays from the classic period and uses imaginative composition, evoking often disturbing arrangements of sound. The theme of the piece is based upon the emotional realm, the ending evoking the imagery of evil as it palpitates against the fear and terror of the protagonist within the piece. The first movement rolls over a series of emotions, each one specific and different to the other, but intertwined in order to musically describe the emotional state in which the protagonist begins his journey. According to Mellers (2002), Berlioz said that the symphony “came to me…in my manhood, a voice out of the burning bush: proffered by Shakespeare in the guise of Harriet Smithson, in the guise of Ophelia, the personal being inseparable from the literary revelation” (p. 143). The work was related to the historiography of music, but developed through the personal emotional connection that Berlioz had to the theme. He used the structures of the Classicists in order to frame his work but filled the frame with the emotional content that was the fashion of the Romantic period. Schonberg (1987) states that Berlioz was considered by some to have been an “evil influence on the development of music” (p. 168). His work took the structure of the Classicists apart, but reconfigured it to allow the emotional expression to blossom. Schonberg (1987) says of Berlioz that “there is not one piece of his that lacks incandescent moments” and that “Berlioz is seen plain, his eagle beak defiantly thrust at the heavens, glorifying in a kind of tonal magnificence and an ideal of self-expression that make the concept of Romanticism very clear”(p. 168). The Romantic aesthetic was to explore the mystical side of the human mind, to delve into the emotional content and stir up the expressions until they burst forth in imagery that was powerful and full of a sense of the truth. The tale that is told through the Symphonie Fantastique op 14 is written in the context of the mystery of the emotions of love, a story told in order to evoke the sorrow and despair that love brings, tinged with the consistency of hope that allows love to continue to be a powerful part of the human experience. In searching for this truth and in embodying the concepts of the mystical end to his journey, confronting the dark evil that taints the ending of love, Berlioz utilized the elements of the Romantic period to create this masterful work. Conclusion The work of Berlioz, while controversial through its strong emotional content and unusual tonal rendering, is a perfect example of Romanticism. Through creating a piece that was highly emotional which told a story of dreams and reverie, Berlioz was able to incorporate the elements of mysticism and evil into the work. The confrontation of evil, both within the emotions of love that lead the dream towards murder and into the vision of the witches which is blatantly considered evil, the contemplations of the Romantics of the world, both the nature and the unnatural, is addressed. The third movement, “Scene in the Countryside” utilizes the theme of nature and the peace and tranquility that can be found within the natural world. Within “The Dream of the Witches Sabbath”, the natural world of the third movement is contrasted to the mystical evil of the fourth movement. The works embodies most all of the elements of the Romantic period. The themes of nature, evil, mysticism, and emotional truth are all addressed within the work. The conflict within the duality of some of the themes, love, evil, and the natural as opposed to the supernatural, are presented through the emotions of the piece. Love is in conflict as the protagonists both desires his love, and in rejection, murders her and takes her from life. As he joins her in death, she is transformed into an obscene version, her melody becoming grotesque and full of his projected resentments. Through the vehicle of his Symphonie Fantastique op 14, Berlioz explored both the exterior of his world through utilizing the philosophies of his time period, and his interior world through exploring the emotional values of how he felt about his experiences in life. References Berlioz, H. (1997). Symphonie fantastique op. 14 / Hector Berlioz. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. Boulez, P., & Nattiez, J. J. (1986). Orientations. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Hoffer, C. R. (2009). Music listening today. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Schirmer. Mellers, W. (2002). Celestial music?: : some masterpieces of European religious music. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. Schonberg, H. C. (1997). The lives of the great composers. New York: W.W. Norton. The Academy. (1869). London: J. Murray. Wrigley, R. (2007). Regarding romantic Rome. Bern: P. Lang. Read More