“Symphonie Fantastique” Background “Symphonie Fantastique” is one of the Hector Berlioz great orchestra; through its movements, it relays the message of an artist’s self-destructive passion towards a woman. In “Symphonie Fantastique” vividly displays the artist’s various issues are including obsession, dreams, tantrums, in addition to moments of tenderness, suicidal visions, murder, ecstasy as well as despair. “Symphonie Fantastique” is a reflective self-portrait of Hector Berlioz. Berlioz was a
years, much like many composers. Berlioz learned the theoretical implications of harmony and by age twelve he was composing for nearby chamber music groups and with their aid learned to master the flute and guitar (Britannica). At age eighteen, Berlioz’s father sent him to Paris to become a doctor; this was not a career Berlioz had any interest in. He worked for a year to obtain a degree in science while spending most of his free time at the Paris Conservatory library studying scores. Berlioz decided
incorporated into the vocal lines (more-so than Wagner) which adds yet another element of drama (Knapp, 365). Sondheim also borrows from the past by using a common Requiem, Dies irea. In this way, he is very much like Berlioz. In Berlioz’s programmatic Symphonie Fantastique in the final movement which takes place during a witches sabbath. Berlioz used the commonly known requiem for the dead to communicate an unsettling, uncomfortable scene. Sondheim had a similar intention when he incorporated the