Hector berlioz dream of a witches sabbath from symphonie fantastique

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Applied Humanities

Learning to Hear Hearing Berlioz By Alisha Nypaver 1 Module One: Introduction to the Humanities / Page 1.4.4 Hearing Berlioz On this page: 0 of 6 attempted (0%) Objective: Apply the musical-analysis techniques outlined in this learning block to a movement of a symphony by Hector Berlioz.

To continue practicing the basic strategies for analyzing musical works, we’re going to study another example.

Practice Analyzing a Musical Work

On this page, you will analyze a musical work using the listening strategies outlined in this learning module. Be sure to download the detailed description of the music—it might help you with your analysis.

In the preceding pages, we analyzed classical pieces containing lyrics. Although written and sung in a foreign language, these words provide something tangible to assist us in interpreting the music. On this page, however, we will apply our musical-analysis techniques to a purely instrumental piece: “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath,” which is the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (1830).

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Berlioz: “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”

“Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” (fifth movement) from Symphonie Fantastique, opus 14, by Hector Berlioz. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed

description of the music, follow the transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

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First Listen: Impressions

This piece tells a story. What specific ideas or images do you think the composer is trying to portray, and how does he use musical elements to do it? Are there any unusual musical sounds? How do you think they are created?

Short-Answer Question

The music heard from 8:29 to 8:50 features at least two simultaneous melodies competing for your attention. Listen carefully to the different layers of music until you can hear these distinct melodies. The melody played by the string instruments uses a fast rhythm, is relatively high in pitch, and has a frantic feel. How would you describe the other melody?

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Second Listen: Contextualization

Compositional Context

Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) was a French composer of the early Romantic era who is best known for his orchestral music. Completed in 1830, Symphonie Fantastique is one

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of Berlioz’s most celebrated works. As a composer, one of his greatest skills was in orchestration, or deciding which instruments should play which parts. A skillful orchestration can make a big difference in the emotional impact of a piece—just imagine if the iconic theme from the movie Jaws were played by a flute instead of the bass! Berlioz loved having a wide range of timbres to choose from, and therefore almost all his compositions are for a full orchestra.

“Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” is the last movement of Symphonie Fantastique. A movement is a piece of music that sounds complete in and of itself but is only one part of a larger composition, much like a chapter of a book. Each movement of Symphonie Fantastique sounds very different from the other movements, but all of them share one important musical theme: the idée fixe. This recurring melody represents “the Beloved” and returns throughout each movement of the symphony in different forms.

In Mozart’s day, almost all purely instrumental music was absolute, meaning that there was no external meaning or story behind it. But by the time Berlioz came on the scene, the newest trend was program music, which has an accompanying story, poem, or idea. The program behind this symphony tells the story of “the Artist,” an opium addict who is infatuated with “the Beloved,” an unattainable beauty. First the Artist fantasizes about her (Movement I: “Reveries—Passions”), then he runs into her at a party (Movement II: “A Ball”), has visions of her in the countryside (Movement III: “Scenes in the Field”), and discovers that she has been unfaithful. In despair, he poisons himself with opium, which makes him hallucinate that he has killed his Beloved. He is put on trial for her murder and witnesses his own execution (Movement IV: “March to the Scaffold”). Finally, he sees a host of skeletons, witches, and other frightful creatures holding a black Sabbath ritual as they prepare to take his soul to hell, led by none other than the Beloved herself, now revealed to be a witch (Movement V: “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”).

Cultural Context

Nineteenth-century Europe saw a renewal of interest in the English playwright William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s works were translated into every major European language, and theater troupes went on tour to bring his plays back to the stage. In 1827, Berlioz was living in Paris, a hot spot for the arts. He attended a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet starring an Irish actress named Harriet Smithson. Berlioz was instantly obsessed—with both Shakespeare’s writing and the beautiful actress. He began attending as many of her performances as he could and sent her numerous love letters, all of which went unanswered. Berlioz eventually became engaged to another woman but continued to consider Harriet his muse, and she was the inspiration for the Beloved in Symphonie Fantastique.

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At the time, the dominant religion in France was Roman Catholicism. The sacred liturgy of the Catholic Church was in Latin, and the main form of music used for this liturgy was Gregorian chant, a type of vocal music dating back to the Middle Ages. Berlioz wanted to emphasize the theme of death in this work, and so he used a musical code that nearly everyone in his audience would be sure to recognize: the Gregorian chant Dies Irae, “Day of Wrath.” This funereal melody takes on an ominous quality when played by the low brass instruments in this symphony, representing the inevitable and relentless onset of death.

In the early 19th century, opium dens began to spring up in France. Brought over from China, the drug became quite popular among certain members of French society, especially those in the artistic community. Berlioz was an opium user himself, and, much like the music of some 1960s and ’70s rock bands, Symphonie Fantastique was likely inspired by his drug-fueled visions.

Historical Context

This work was atypical for its time for three reasons:

1. Until this point, most symphonies had four movements. Berlioz uses five. 2. All five movements have a common melody, the idée fixe. Very few symphonies

share a common musical idea throughout the movements. 3. Berlioz was one of the first composers to write program notes to accompany his

work, explaining what each movement was about. Program notes are now a standard part of musical performances.

Berlioz revised the work in 1832 and invited Harriet Smithson to attend the premiere. She accepted, and realized that she was Berlioz’s “Beloved.” She finally agreed to meet him, and the two were married the following year.

In 1845 Berlioz published his score with accompanying program notes, which he later revised in 1855. The last two movements of the symphony, including “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath,” are the most appealing to audiences today and remain popular concert works. The music has also been featured in films such as The Shining.

Now that you know the story, imagine that you are Harriet Smithson, sitting in a box at the performance, reading Berlioz’s program notes and recognizing that you are the Beloved-turned-witch who brings the Artist to his doom. Listen for the Dies Irae, the church bells pealing the chimes of death, and the transformation of your melody into a grotesque parody, which Berlioz labels a “Sabbath round-dance.”

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Berlioz: “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”

“Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” (fifth movement) from Symphonie Fantastique, opus 14, by Hector Berlioz. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed

description of the music, follow the transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Having trouble? Try our alternate player.

Response Board How does knowing the story change how you hear the work?

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Third Listen: Analysis

Timbre

Berlioz scored his symphony for over 90 musicians! This gave him a wide palette of timbres with which to recreate the nightmarish vision of hell the Artist experiences. As a master of orchestration, Berlioz was always experimenting with sounds to get just the right combination of timbres to depict what he had imagined. Some of the instruments that Berlioz uses are rather unusual, such as church bells at 3:06. To create special effects, Berlioz also requires musicians to play traditional instruments in nontraditional ways. For instance, in “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath,” he uses pizzicato, a technique that requires string players to pluck the strings of their instrument, at 0:20. He also recreates the sound of skeletons dancing by instructing the violinists to strike the strings with the wooden part of the violin bow at 8:59, instead of dragging the bow hair across the strings.

Response Board

Share your thoughts with your peers...

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What other unusual sound effects can you hear, and how are they created?

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Texture

Berlioz uses a variety of musical textures to produce dramatic effects, including polyphonic texture, which occurs when there are two or more independent melodic lines happening at the same time (as happens here with the brass and strings at 5:34). At one point, there are actually three separate melodies occurring at once.

Pitch

Berlioz liked to contrast high and low pitches for dramatic effect. The opening of this movement, beginning at 0:01, features a backdrop of soft, high, muted violins, accompanied by a low ascending motif that sounds almost like a growl. In Berlioz’s own words, this represents “unearthly sounds” and “groans,” which are followed by “shrieks of laughter” played by the high strings. Listen for the contrasts of high and low throughout the piece.

Short-Answer Question

Where else do you hear dramatic pitch contrasts?

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He also sometimes uses pitch repetition (beginning at 8:12, for example). What effect does this repetition have, especially when played at this loud dynamic level?

Rhythm

The first time the idée fixe is heard in an earlier movement of the symphony, it is smooth and connected. When it appears in this movement, it is transformed into a parody that is “vulgar... trivial and grotesque.” In part, Berlioz achieves this effect by changing the rhythm of the melody; he shortens some notes and adds extra ones, called ornaments.

Share your thoughts with your peers...

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Another trick is to play the same melody again, but at a different tempo. When the Dies Irae appears at 3:33, it is first played by the tubas and bassoons, but it later appears in a rhythm that is twice as fast at 3:57 with the higher brass instruments.

Short-Answer Question

Where can you find another prominent instance of pitch repetition?

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Dynamics

Just as Berlioz contrasts high and low pitches to create drama, he also contrasts dynamics. Some sections are as soft as a whisper, while others are almost painfully loud. The skillful use of dynamics helps Berlioz tell his story. For example, there is a sudden fortissimo at 9:20 (a level louder than forte) that announces the arrival of the Beloved, who is now revealed to be an evil witch. The use of a gradual dynamic-level increase at 7:49 (called a crescendo) builds energy and drama throughout the work, especially at the end, as the instruments combine in a powerfully loud finale that drowns out the screams of the Artist as his soul is dragged down to hell.

Form

This movement is one section that is part of a larger, five-movement symphony. However, this movement also has its own form.

Short-Answer Question

How many different sections can you hear?

No response saved yet.

Listen to the piece again, focusing on hearing these different musical elements. You may have to listen a few times to hear them all. For this piece, try to train your ear to listen to the different musical layers of the work. First, listen to the main melody. Each subsequent time you listen, try to focus on the deeper layers and their musical elements.

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Berlioz: “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”

“Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” (fifth movement) from Symphonie Fantastique, opus 14, by Hector Berlioz. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed

description of the music, follow the transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Having trouble? Try our alternate player.

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