Hector Berlioz

Question 1

Information About Him (15)

Answer 1

• (1803-1869)
• born near Lyon, France
• father was a doctor
• took music lessons as a child
• sent to Paris to study medicine, but didn’t like it
• switched to Paris Conservatory
• won the Prix de Rome
• in 1830, his career was launched with Symphonie fantastique
• became friends with Liszt
• met actress Harriet Smithson and later married her
• had a son named Louis
• traveled as a conductor
• was a composer and writer
• received the Légion d’honneur
• in 1844, left his wife and met singer Marie Recio but didn’t marry her until Harriet died

Question 2

His Style and Contributions (9)

Answer 2

• was an innovative orchestrator by expanding the orchestra and adding new effects
• wrote program music
• chromatic harmony
• program symphonies: Symphonie fantastique, Harold in Italy, Romeo and Juliet
• concert overtures: Waverley, Rob Roy, Le Corsair, King Lear
• song cycle: Les nuits d’été
• operas: Les Troyens, Béatrice et Bénédict, Benvenuto Cellini
• choral works: La damnation de Faust, Te Deum, Requiem
• oratorio: L’enfance du Christ

Question 3

Important Work: Symphonie Fantastique (3)

Answer 3

• subtitled (in English): “Episode in the Life of an Artist”
• program is a lovesick artist who takes opium and has hallucinations
• five movements

Question 4

First Movement of Symphonie Fantastique (4)

Answer 4

• “Reveries, Passions”
• in C minor and C major
• slow and then fast
• introduces idée fixe which represents the artist’s beloved

Question 5

Second Movement of Symphonie Fantastique (5)

Answer 5

• “A Ball”
• in A major
• allegro
• in 3/8 time
• artist sees his beloved at a dance

Question 6

Third Movement of Symphonie Fantastique (5)

Answer 6

• “Scene in the Fields”
• in F major
• slow
• in 6/8 time
• artist is in the countryside and is thinking of his beloved, hears shepherds

Question 7

Fourth Movement of Symphonie Fantastique (5)

Answer 7

• “March to the Scaffold”
• in G minor
• allegretto
• in 4/4 time
• artist dreams he killed his beloved and is being executed

Question 8

Fifth Movement of Symphonie Fantastique (16)

Answer 8

• “Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath”
• in C minor
• slow and then fast
• in 4/4 time but then in 6/8
• at a witch’s Sabbath, monsters and witches around (Halloween)
• new key: E-flat major
• idée fixe is played by clarinet in 6/8 time with trills and grace notes to represent his beloved as a witch
• example of thematic transformation
• bells
• melody from Dies irae is heard by the bassoons and ophicléide
• “Dance of the Witches”:
• in C major
• in 6/8 time
• has fugal texture
• combines the Dies irae theme and the witches’ dance
• col legno effect used