Music is a very powerful tool. It has the power to bring happiness or sorrow. It can stir up old memories that someone has forgotten. In Berlioz’s case he uses one of his most famous pieces, Symphonie Fantastique to tell a story. Berlioz combines the use of instrumentation, rhythm and dynamics in a stunningly effective way that conveys to the listener a tragic tale of an artist, whose true love didn’t reciprocate his feelings leading him down a path of self destruction.
The first tool Berlioz employs to tell his story is instrumentation. The type of instrument that is used can drastically change the feelings a musical piece expresses and therefore the story that it tells. Different instruments have their own characteristics and own unique sound. For example, trumpets tend to have a loud, bright sound which usually results in majestic and grand melodies while flutes tend to be much quieter and able to play calmer and more somber melodies. The particular movement in question here is the fourth movement, March to the Scaffold. In this movement an artist has taken opium, and envisions himself killing his beloved, and then he is led to the scaffold and executed. Right at the beginning of this movement, Berlioz uses the low sounds of the French horns to create the impression that something grave has occurred. The string section then plays a similar solemn melody creating a scene in which it seems the artist has been apprehended and there is no escape. Later on he uses the loud majestic sounds of the horns to paint a picture of a huge crowd, rejoicing as this criminal has been caught. Right before the execution, a lone clarinet plays a light melody representing the last conscious thought of the artist in which he seems to see his love ...
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...shattered with the fortissimo g minor chord that the whole band plays bringing the listener back into the real world that Berlioz is expressing. Likewise the quiet violin notes represent this insignificant head bouncing and it is nothing compared to the massive world all around. Then at the end of the piece Berlioz once again has the whole orchestra play fortissimo to provide the listener with a picture of an absolutely colossal crowd cheering together. The use of dynamics helped Berlioz establish what perspective he was telling the story from.
These three devices used in juxtaposition gave Berlioz the power to tell a story. The type of instrument he would use, along with the rhythm and dynamic that accompanied it would help paint pictures ranging from a massive crowd cheering, to a single man experiencing one last moment of pleasure in his mind before his death.
In summation, Berlioz had a profound affect in showing the public the capabilities of emotion being represented in music, and his Symphonie fantastique was a turning point in his career as his first full-scale masterpiece. He expressed more intense emotion than had been done before through programmatic elements, the idée fixe, new combinations of instruments, as well as instruments not previously used in symphonic settings. He also employed tested techniques in new ways to achieve the individual expressionistic tendencies represented in the changes in society. The positive reception by his contemporary society as well as subsequent generations certainly qualifies this work to be included as a masterpiece.
The author compares Berlioz, a man of music to Cooper, a man of anatomy and surgery, to show that it is the desire for knowledge of interest that drove them to the peak of success in their respective fields. The author cites what William Hazlitt, an opponent of the romantic age said about the anatomist ’s that he likes to see the objects related to their subject as it create new thoughts in the student's minds that ultimately overcomes the pain but he dislikes the prospect of the corpse that presents to ordinary
...ers and the audience. The dramatic nature of this piece alone is something to be reckoned with as it is extremely passionate. The symphony is presented in 4 movements as is common and begins with a Poco Sostenuto- Vivace, followed by a Allegretto movement, Presto movement, and finally ends on an Allegro con brio movement. the central theme of this piece is introduced in the first movement by a flute playing in tripple meter continuously ascending up the scales rising in dynamic contrast, continuing to grow into a louder and more stark contrast between it’s highs and lows. Consistently dance like, the piece is celebratory of its roots buried in historical Austrian music that has been present in the culture for years. The accomplishments of the soldiers for which the piece was composed for are easily told of simply by the energy and power present throughout the piece.
It holds such power over captives and captors alike that they cannot help but feel enamoured to the life it brings. Cesar especially feels the beauty of music “Oh, how he loved to hear the words in his mouth… It didn't matter that he didn't understand the language, he knew what it meant. The words and music fused together and became a part of him” and through music, he discovers his latent talent for singing (224). Based only on Roxanne’s previous arias, Cesar’s potential is outstandingly bright when he sings for the first time without any training whatsoever. Not only do the others learn to appreciate his gift, but Roxanne herself recognizes how promising he is or she would not have bothered to waste her time tutoring him. Beforehand, Cesar is nothing remarkable, just another one of the terrorists who detains them, but the opera transforms him into a separate person. Like the mansion enveloped in the garua, Cesar is heavily shrouded by serious self-esteem issues and fear, but after his breakthrough, his worries suddenly disappear and his life becomes a reservoir of joy. If “life, true life, was something stored in music”, then Cesar has lived a deprived life; his passion for music was just unfolding, but fate robs the world of who “was meant to be the greatest singer of his time” (5,
Hector Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique at the age of 27. He based the program on his own impassioned life and transferred his memoirs into his best- known program symphony. The story is about a love sick, depressed young artist, while in his despair poisons himself with opium. His beloved is represented throughout the symphony by the symbolic idee fixe. There are five movements throughout symphony. The program begins with the 1st movement: Reveries, Passions symbolizing the artist's life prior to meeting his beloved. This is represented as a mundaness and indefinable searching or yearning, until suddenly, he meets her and his longing abruptly ceases and is replaced by volcanic love. The soaring melody becomes the Idee fixe and is introduced in this section.
The clarinets in the last beat of bar 25 and bar 26 play the "sight" motive which then is played by the bassoon and immediately after by the horn. What follows in bar 29 is a massive unexpected climatic gesture coming from nowhere.
...ts of fever and general ill-health. And in his last ten years in Vienna, the constant need to write commissioned work - for he was the first of the composing freelances, with no regular patrons or court salaries - had worn him down to the point where one bout of fever was sure to finish him off. In July he'd had the anonymous commission to write a Requiem for the Dead; but that had been progressing slowly, because he'd been busy with two operas - La Clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute - and two cantatas at the same time. Thirty-five years of artistic, social and personal pressure was taking its toll.
40 is an effective composition that allows one’s mind to imagine vivid pictures. While listening to the piece by Mozart, I felt a sense of urgency throughout the piece while eliciting strong emotions of passion and grief. Composers like Richard Wagner and Peter Tchaikovsky were greatly influenced by Mozart’s musical capabilities of conveying intense feelings. The listener is affected by the different measures of commonalties between the musical periods, the composers of those periods and the pieces they compose. Mozart’s music pulled away from the norms and constraints of period style music. This composition enhances my knowledge because he has created compositions that employ the sonata, rondo, aria as well as other forms to exude strength, beauty, and grace with every
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