Study guide
Berlioz
Includes a detailed summary of the information needed for A2 exam. Background, Key points of interest, Structure, Melody, Tonality, Harmony, Texture, Sonority, Rhythm & Metre. (FYI Secured B Grade with these notes)
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Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique:All Mvts.
BACKGROUND
- French composer crucial in development of Romantic music.
Wrote on a large scale, increasing orchestra size and performance
techniques.
- Mostly self-taught until he pursued a career in composition at the
Paris Conservatoire, where he was inspired by Beethoven's
compositions.
- Symphonie Fantastique: an example of programme music, ( 'to be
considered as the spoken text of an opera, which serves to
introduce musical movements and to motivate their character and
expression.’) telling the story of a tortured artist poisoning himself
because of hopeless love.
- Uses idée fixe, a recurring theme acting as a structural foundation
of the work.
- 5 movements, unconventional as usually symphonies of the time
were in 4 movements. Each movement has a descriptive title.
, Mvt.1
STRUCTURE
Point Explanation Reference(s)
Sonata form preceded by a slow Treated Sonata form as highly Opening of Romeo & Juliet Overture,
introduction: flexible ground plan: Tchaicovsky (1880)
- Expanded account of a typical - Bends to whim of - Friar Lawrence’s chorale forms
‘classical-era’ sonata structure programmatic narrative slow introduction
with addition of a slow - Schumann & many Leipzig
introduction
mid Romantics regarded
sonata form as a
standardised pattern
- Berlioz takes concept of
Romantic expansionism of
classical forms to its very
extreme
- Highly influential on future
programmatic writings
Slow Introduction (Bars 1-63) Slow introduction: ‘Scottish’ Symphony (No.3),
- Melody actually comes from song Perhaps some precedent for this Mendelssohn (1842)
written by Berlioz when he was a in Classical era - Opens with slow intro before
teen sonata form Allegro
- Symbolises the state of dreamy
- Work completed in 1842, but
melancholy that the artist inhabits
before meeting his beloved
begun writing it a year before
- Represents the realisation of the Symphonie Fantastique (1829)
artist that the moment he --------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
glimpses his lover marks the Slow Introductions to 1st mvt. 6th Symphony, Haydn (1761)
moment his ‘life proper’ begins Sonata Form symphonic works: - Opens with a slow intro that
- Became a model also for figuratively alludes to sunrise,
Romantic programme before beginning the ‘day
symphonies proper’ through the start of the
Exposition
Link to Sonata form section of piece
(Bars 64-71)
- Homophonic
- Reinforcing Cmaj
- 2 ♪ motif introduced
(will become important
accompaniment)
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