1. DREAMS, PASSIONS
(Largo)(Allegro agitato e appassionato assai)
2. A BALL
(Waltz: Allegro non troppo)
3. SCENE IN THE FIELDS
(Adagio)
4. MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLD
(Allegretto non troppo)
5. WALPURGIS NIGHT'S DREAM
(Larghetto)(Allegro)
ThisSymphonie fantastique, in five movements, constitutes the first part of a work entitled by Berlioz "Episode in the Life of an Artist." The second part, a "lyric monodrama," is entitled "Lélio; or, The Return to Life." TheSymphonie fantastiquewas composed in 1830, at the time of Berlioz's "interminable and inextinguishable" passion for the Irish actress Henrietta Smithson—the tragic history of which this is not the place to review. The "Episode in the Life of an Artist," as he wrote to his dear friend Ferrand early in 1830, was to portray "the development of my infernal passion." As to the meaning of the "Fantastic Symphony," Berlioz has himself supplied the following detailed explanatory preface:
"A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of amorous despair. The narcotic dose, too weak to result indeath, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest visions, during which his sensations, sentiments, and recollections are translated in his sick brain into musical thought and images. The beloved woman herself has become for him a melody, like a fixed idea which he finds and hears everywhere."Part I"DREAMS, PASSIONS"He first recalls that uneasiness of soul, thatvague des passions, those moments of causeless melancholy and joy, which he experienced before seeing her whom he loves; then the volcanic love with which she suddenly inspired him, his moments of delicious anguish, of jealous fury, his returns to loving tenderness, and his religious consolations."Part II"A BALL"He sees his beloved at a ball, in the midst of the tumult of a brilliant fête."Part III"SCENE IN THE FIELDS"One summer evening in the country he hears two shepherds playing aRanz-des-vachesin alternate dialogue; this pastoral duet, the scene around him, the light rustling of the trees gently swayed by the breeze, some hopes he has recently conceived, all combine to restore an unwonted calm to his heart and to impart a more cheerful coloring to his thoughts; butsheappears once more, his heart stops beating, he is agitated with painful presentiments; if she were to betray him!... One of the shepherds resumes his artless melody, the other no longer answers him. The sun sets ... the sound of distant thunder ... solitude ... silence...."Part IV"MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLD"He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. The procession advances to the tones of a march which is now sombre and wild, now brilliant and solemn, in which the dull sound of the tread of heavy feet follows without transition upon the most resounding outbursts. At the end, thefixed ideareappears for an instant, like a last love-thought interrupted by the fatal stroke."Part V"WALPURGIS NIGHT'S DREAM"He sees himself at the witches' Sabbath, in the midst of a frightful group of ghosts, magicians, and monsters of all sorts, who have come together for his obsequies. He hears strange noises, groans, ringing laughter, shrieks, to which other shrieks seem to reply. Thebeloved melodyagain reappears; but it has lost its noble and timid character; it has become an ignoble, trivial, and grotesque dance-tune: it isshewho comes to the witches' Sabbath.... Howlings of joy at her arrival ... she takes part in the diabolic orgy.... Funeral knells, burlesque parody on theDies iræ. Witches' dance. The witches' dance and theDies irætogether."[16]
"A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of amorous despair. The narcotic dose, too weak to result indeath, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest visions, during which his sensations, sentiments, and recollections are translated in his sick brain into musical thought and images. The beloved woman herself has become for him a melody, like a fixed idea which he finds and hears everywhere."Part I"DREAMS, PASSIONS"He first recalls that uneasiness of soul, thatvague des passions, those moments of causeless melancholy and joy, which he experienced before seeing her whom he loves; then the volcanic love with which she suddenly inspired him, his moments of delicious anguish, of jealous fury, his returns to loving tenderness, and his religious consolations."Part II"A BALL"He sees his beloved at a ball, in the midst of the tumult of a brilliant fête."Part III"SCENE IN THE FIELDS"One summer evening in the country he hears two shepherds playing aRanz-des-vachesin alternate dialogue; this pastoral duet, the scene around him, the light rustling of the trees gently swayed by the breeze, some hopes he has recently conceived, all combine to restore an unwonted calm to his heart and to impart a more cheerful coloring to his thoughts; butsheappears once more, his heart stops beating, he is agitated with painful presentiments; if she were to betray him!... One of the shepherds resumes his artless melody, the other no longer answers him. The sun sets ... the sound of distant thunder ... solitude ... silence...."Part IV"MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLD"He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. The procession advances to the tones of a march which is now sombre and wild, now brilliant and solemn, in which the dull sound of the tread of heavy feet follows without transition upon the most resounding outbursts. At the end, thefixed ideareappears for an instant, like a last love-thought interrupted by the fatal stroke."Part V"WALPURGIS NIGHT'S DREAM"He sees himself at the witches' Sabbath, in the midst of a frightful group of ghosts, magicians, and monsters of all sorts, who have come together for his obsequies. He hears strange noises, groans, ringing laughter, shrieks, to which other shrieks seem to reply. Thebeloved melodyagain reappears; but it has lost its noble and timid character; it has become an ignoble, trivial, and grotesque dance-tune: it isshewho comes to the witches' Sabbath.... Howlings of joy at her arrival ... she takes part in the diabolic orgy.... Funeral knells, burlesque parody on theDies iræ. Witches' dance. The witches' dance and theDies irætogether."[16]
"A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of amorous despair. The narcotic dose, too weak to result indeath, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest visions, during which his sensations, sentiments, and recollections are translated in his sick brain into musical thought and images. The beloved woman herself has become for him a melody, like a fixed idea which he finds and hears everywhere.
"Part I
"DREAMS, PASSIONS
"He first recalls that uneasiness of soul, thatvague des passions, those moments of causeless melancholy and joy, which he experienced before seeing her whom he loves; then the volcanic love with which she suddenly inspired him, his moments of delicious anguish, of jealous fury, his returns to loving tenderness, and his religious consolations.
"Part II
"A BALL
"He sees his beloved at a ball, in the midst of the tumult of a brilliant fête.
"Part III
"SCENE IN THE FIELDS
"One summer evening in the country he hears two shepherds playing aRanz-des-vachesin alternate dialogue; this pastoral duet, the scene around him, the light rustling of the trees gently swayed by the breeze, some hopes he has recently conceived, all combine to restore an unwonted calm to his heart and to impart a more cheerful coloring to his thoughts; butsheappears once more, his heart stops beating, he is agitated with painful presentiments; if she were to betray him!... One of the shepherds resumes his artless melody, the other no longer answers him. The sun sets ... the sound of distant thunder ... solitude ... silence....
"Part IV
"MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLD
"He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. The procession advances to the tones of a march which is now sombre and wild, now brilliant and solemn, in which the dull sound of the tread of heavy feet follows without transition upon the most resounding outbursts. At the end, thefixed ideareappears for an instant, like a last love-thought interrupted by the fatal stroke.
"Part V
"WALPURGIS NIGHT'S DREAM
"He sees himself at the witches' Sabbath, in the midst of a frightful group of ghosts, magicians, and monsters of all sorts, who have come together for his obsequies. He hears strange noises, groans, ringing laughter, shrieks, to which other shrieks seem to reply. Thebeloved melodyagain reappears; but it has lost its noble and timid character; it has become an ignoble, trivial, and grotesque dance-tune: it isshewho comes to the witches' Sabbath.... Howlings of joy at her arrival ... she takes part in the diabolic orgy.... Funeral knells, burlesque parody on theDies iræ. Witches' dance. The witches' dance and theDies irætogether."[16]