MUS302H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 99: Symphonie Fantastique, Harriet Smithson, Dune
Document Summary
Will only need to know movements 4 and 5! for midterm at least. At that time, symphonies were accompanied with a program (essentially a story), making the symphony a musical drama without words. The program was distributed to audience when they entered concert hall, and were expected to read the story before they listened to the piece. Berlioz was a forerunner of the romantic style; he made many creative changes to the symphony style, e. g. 5 movements in this symphony. The tale / program that accompanied it was unabashedly and quite obviously referencing berlioz"s infatuation with harriet smithson. During the composition of the symphony, berlioz heard that harriet was romantically involved with her manager. He fussed over the pamphlet quite a bit, and adjusted it to t with the other pieces that were performed together with the symphony on any particular performance. Recurring musical theme in the symphony that ties together all the movements.
