First Part Of The Music example essay topic

Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique Nineteenth century was the time where music composers sought inspiration from sources outside music. An encounter with nature, the impressions of a voyage, love tragedy, popular legend, or even in some cases an entire play might provide a story that could be described in music. Of course it is not possible for a tale to be told thoroughly through music. But, there are certain events in the story that can be presented through music by using different colors, moods, and sound effects.

One of the examples about this kind of music, which is called descriptive music, is program music. One of the most famous 19th century composer for program music is Hector Berlioz. I am going to discuss about his most celebrated work, then and now, Symphonie fantastique. Born in 1803 in Grenoble, France, Berlioz pursued medicine at the request of his father before setting his mind to live his life as a musician. His angry father decided to cut him off all his living supply that Berlioz himself is forced to begin his career as a music critic to earn a living while studying music in Paris. After watching a Shakespeare play, Berlioz, as with many of other musicians, became greatly inspired by William Shakespeare's work.

He composed a lot of songs for Shakespeare's play such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and et cetera. Berlioz's work such as Symphonie fantastique, Romeo et Juliette, Damnation of Faust, and The Trojans, although considered strange by French people, became a big hit in countries outside France. Berlioz's most famous piece, then and now, is his Symphonie fantastique. The music written for this piece tells such a vivid story about an author who imagines a young man who is in love with a woman. From the music itself I can sense the deep passionate, full of longing, love, sometimes loneliness and jealousy and many other different feelings described brilliantly by Berlioz through the different orchestration. A young woman, named Harriet Smithson, inspired the work itself.

In this particular piece Sutrisno 2 Berlioz poured in all his passion, love, longing, loneliness and even jealousy and despair of being rejected by her beloved. This can be heard clearly from his orchestration of music and different moods of music used by Berlioz throughout the program. The first part of the program was titled Reveries - Passions. In this part the author imagines a young musician who is deeply in love with his beloved whom he sees for the first time. The artist describes through the music the character of his beloved. His obsession with her is such that he keeps thinking about her all the time.

This is shown in the returning idee fixe, which symbolizes the artist's beloved throughout the whole piece. Berlioz introduces the first part of the music through slow, simple notes played by the flute and clarinet and a dreamlike music played by the violin and other strings. For me it seems like the author is at first introducing us to the prepares us for the beginning of the melody while the dreamlike melody suggested that the author is imagining about a young man who is in love at first sight at a woman he has just met. The slow, long notes create the sense of longing for the beloved lady. The brief idee fixe at the beginning of the passage suggests the presence of the lady and the author sees her for the first time there. The fast tempo of the violin and the dreamlike melody that comes again afterwards tells of the author's excited feeling at the sight of his beloved woman and how he dreams and fantasizes of the woman.

The long, passionate notes tell how elegant the woman is in the author's eyes. The suspense that comes afterwards, the contrasting violin figures and the sustained chords that swells to fortissimo, which means very loud, suggests to me that the author realized for the first time that he had fallen in love with her. Hi feels excited but scared at the same time, which explains for the alternating violin and wind chords. The horn solo suggests that he decided at last to not to care. It seems like he is telling himself " Oh what the heck.

I would not care so much again and I would continue loving this woman". The change of dynamics to fortissimo tells that the artist is surer now of his feelings. At the fourth minute Berlioz introduce the idee fixe which represents the artist's beloved. The first theme in violins with solo flute first accompanied suggests the presence of one lovely and elegant young lady. The transition, which leads to a more brilliant rapid passage followed with a short peaceful passage and then another few brilliant, rapid and fast passages of music before returning to the first theme tells me the frenzy and excited state the artist is in as he tells about the woman and the beloved woman again appears in his mind.

The chromatic notes continued with the sudden long stop and long pause tells that as the artist gets more and more excited about the lady but suddenly he stops and ponders, unsure of whether he is doing the right thing or not. The idee fixe returns this time followed with low descending continuation on bassoons and cellos, crescendo and full orchestra, suggesting that once again he remembers the girl but he is in some kind of despair not knowing what to do. Afterwards come the solo oboe over strings, new long melody with big leaps that leads to the return of idee fixe much louder this time and then suddenly it became quiet before continuing again to slow simple notes. This suggests that the author is in a dilemma but he suddenly seems to have found a newfound purpose in his life. He imagines dancing with her in a ball surrounded with many people whereas the sudden silent suggested that he returned to his world.

The idee fixe returns in the coda which is ended by some church like elegant melody which makes me feel that once again the artist thinks about his dream lady and expresses his longing to spend the rest of his life with her. Part two of the program is titled the Ball. The part is introduced to the audience by the downward diatonic scales then followed by the waltz. After some moment the idee fixe returns before the transition is reached and the waltz returns again.

The artist is now attending a ball. He is enjoying the beautiful notes of the waltz when he suddenly remembers his love again. The harp playing in the background makes me sense the loneliness felt by the artist. The artist imagines dancing with his love in the ball when he suddenly realizes that that is only a dream and he is still in the ball. He observed the ball and the sound of the harp. The louder music indicates that there are a lot of people dancing around him.

The music gets faster and faster to the end of the piece. The fast notes, creates a sense of need so urgent for the beloved woman wherever he is even when he is busy doing other things he still cannot stop thinking about the woman. The sudden presence of the strings again makes him realize that he is still in the ball and the waltz ended a few moments afterward. Berlioz introduces the third movement with the sound of a horn and oboe, which is sounded one after another. The traditional sound of the music creates an air of the countryside. The artist is now in the countryside where he is listening to two shepherds talking to one another from quite some distant.

The gentle melody with a trail of pizzicato at the back gives us the peaceful feeling we usually get when we visit the countryside and observe the beauty of nature there. The melody by the violins and cellos suggested that the artist is lying down in the middle of a green pasture on a sunny day where the shepherds are looking after their herds. Once again he is reminded of his love as the idee fixe returns again in the music. This makes him feels excited but calm at the same time. The strings are now played in a high itch indicating how frenzy he was about his love. Once again the melody returns in clarinet indicating that the artist's thought suddenly came back to the pastures.

From the music we can sense the author's feeling of loneliness and how he wishes his love could be at his side now. The closing section with idee fixe suggests that he keeps thinking about her but in the end there is only one shepherd left as there is no longer answer to the horn which is just like the artist who is alone without anyone to accompany him. The fourth movement is titled March To The Scaffold. The low sound of the horn suggested tat a deep tragedy is happening in the story. The artist feels that his love is not appreciated. This truth hits him hard in the face and he feels very depressed about this to the point where he decides to end his life by drinking some poison.

The poison however is too weak to kill him. Instead he only falls into a deep slumber. This is shown by the sound of the march where there are trumpets, brass and some other instruments playing in a low range. The pizzicato technique in this piece suggests of new discoveries. In this case the artist is in a dream where he woke up and found that he is in the middle of a procession where crowds surround him and he is about to be beheaded. The loud march indicates the cheering crowd.

The sudden return of the idee fixe tells that for the last time before he dies he remembers the woman he loved so dearly in his life and as his head is chopped the orchestra is playing louder and faster which makes it look as if the crowd is cheering as he is beheaded. The fifth movement, also the last part of the whole program is of a darker sound. It is titled Dream of a witches's ab bath. The sound of bassoons at the beginning of the piece indicates that the artist just woke up and found himself in Hell.

The melody is getting louder by the time, suggesting that he is in the middle of a procession, a dark one because of the low range in which the instruments are playing. The shrill clarinet sound afterwards indicates that he found out that his beloved's spirit also is there joining the procession held by witches. At the third minute funeral bells can be heard signaling the artist's funeral, where the melody is first sounded loudly and then heard distantly. We have now come to the part of the Dies Irae, which signals gloom and doom in the end.

This is sounded by the tubas, which is played together with the bells. This part of the music indicates that this part is in some way sacred but not in the light way church processions are usually held but in the dark and evil way. The pizzicato technique in the fifth minute indicates that the witches are dancing in the procession. At the ninth minute the witches' dance and the Dies Irae is combined. As the clarinet is played shrilly, procession has a sort of evil sound because of the irregularity, sometimes loud, sometimes-soft music. The happy, cheerful tunes towards the end of the piece indicates that the artist feels happy at last because he has found his beloved who joined in the devilish orgy.

This creates an effect which makes us imagine a group of witches and ghosts and spirits dancing around together. This effect is furthermore enhanced by the low range of the instruments. The procession finally ends as all the instruments are sounded at once with shrill sound of the strings. Program music according to my opinion does help is to enjoy a piece more. This makes me able to appreciate the instrumental music more as I know that there is a story behind each part of the music. Programs and music according to my opinion is an inseparable unit.

This is because often when we listen to music they create some kind of effect of us. When I listen to purely instrumental music with no lyrics at all I often imagine that something is happening, like for example pure slow melody makes me feel like I am in another place not in my room listening to music but in the forest or beach for example. Of course the presence of the program has helped me a lot in understanding this piece of music. I can appreciate the music better when there is a program along with the music..