Program Music

Program Music

• Revival of program music in the late 19th century (late Romantic period.) • Program music: materials & techniques are employed with the intent of depicting an extra musical phenomenon.

• For example – A dramatic incident – A poetic image – A visual object – An element in nature

• These things not only provided the general suggestive impulses, but also became the dominating ideas in the musical composition.

• Other music composed during this time was called

absolute music

.

– Music conceived by the composer & understood by the listener without reference to extra-musical features.

• Program music extends back into the medieval & Renaissance eras.

Hector Berlioz 1803-1869

• Grenoble, France • Father wanted him to be a doctor, but it didn’t happen.

• He spend more time at opera houses & music halls.

• Berlioz fell in love with Harriet Smithson, an English actress; she was playing Ophelia in

Hamlet

when Berlioz saw her.

• He tried to meet her but was rejected as a lunatic.

• He continued studying music & on his 5th attempt, he won the prestigious

Prix de Rome

. (1830)

• Also in 1830, he finished his major & only widely-known composition,

Symphonie Fantastique

.

– The “symphony” reflected his passion for Smithson.

– After hearing it, she was so impressed that she married him.

– Several years later though, they separated (stormy relationship.) • Berlioz had difficulty in getting his works performed.

• He believe in BIG productions (200 instruments in orchestra; 300 singers in the chorus; rather impractical.)

• As a conductor, he added new instruments to the orchestra.

• He wrote some pieces for new & redeveloped instruments.

• His greatest contribution to music: getting sound out of an orchestra (orchestration.) • Many of Berlioz’s ideas were grandiose & proved to be impractical for the time period.

• Tone color was more prominent in his music than melody & harmony.

• In 1844, he wrote an important treatise on orchestration & tone color.

• 3 characteristics of Berlioz’s music – Passionate emotionalism – Daring experimentation – Rich imagination • Berlioz wrote many

dramatic

symphonies, many on the works of Shakespeare & some on the works of Goethe (story of Faust.) – Dramatic symphony: similar to the oratorio; not religious in nature.

• His major works are immense & dramatic.

Major Works

• • • • •

Symphonie Fantastique Romeo & Juliet King Lear

(dramatic symphony) Overture

Beatrice et Benedict

(opera)

Waverly

&

Rob Roy

Overtures (based on novels by Sir Walter Scott) •

Harold in Italy

Byron.) (symphony based on a poem by

Symphonie Fantastique

5 Movements

I.

II.

Reveries, Passions A Ball III. Scene in the Country IV. March to the Scaffold V.

Dream of the Witches’ Sabbath

Background Story

• A young musician poisons himself with opium in a fit of lovesick despair; it’s not enough to kill him, just make him sick.

• He has strange visions that are transformed into musical thoughts & images.

• His “loved-one” becomes a melody (an

idee fixe

: a fixed idea or fixation.) • This melody will appear in all 5 movements when the musician thinks of the “loved-one.”

• The

idee-fixe

is also known as a signature theme.

• It is a theme (melody) or motto that is repeated, with or without variation during a musical composition.

➢ The idee-fixe gives the piece musical unity since it appears in each movement.

✿ The orchestra portrays a wide range of images & emotional states.

Part I: Reveries, Passions

• He recalls the soul-sickness, depressions, & groundless joys he experienced before he first saw his love one.

• Music then reflects the volcanic love that she suddenly inspired in him.

• Swirling sounds indicate the frenzied suffering, jealous rages he experiences • The music also shows his returns to tenderness & his religious consolations.

Part II: A Ball

• Waltz-like flavor • He encounters his beloved at a party (music sounds like the tumult of a brilliant party.) • Harps & percussion • Violin—tremolo • Pay attention to the finale.

Part III: Scene in the Country

• Slow, pastoral movement.

• Gentle & calm • Country scenery, quiet rustling of the trees gently brushed by the wind • Gives the young musician an unaccustomed calm.

• The movement ends on a note of loneliness.

Part IV: March to the Scaffold

• Scaffold = guillotine • He dreams he has killed his loved one & is condemned to death.

• Rather somber & fierce then brilliant & solemn • Has a military sound to it as the young composer is marched to his death.

• The idee-fixe returns—he sees his loved one in the crowd and then…CHOP the blade of the guillotine strikes.

• Bassoons play the melody • Sound effects depicting elements of the story • Listen for the snarling sound made by the trombone.

Part V: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath

• Noises represent ghosts, sorcerers, monsters, witches & other types of ghouls; there are groans, bursts of laughter, distant cries.

• He sees himself in the midst of this frightful gathering, which turns out to be his funeral.

• The beloved melody appears again, but it has no character or nobility; it is trivial, mean, & grotesque.

• “She” has come to take part in the devilish orgy.

• Listen for the funeral knell (bells tolling at midnight) • There is a parody of a

Dies Irae

(from the requiem; Day of Wrath) • The witches dance a “round dance” that is supposed to sound like a fugue, which combines the funeral knell & the

Dies Irae

.