Hector Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

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The Fantastic Symphonie Fantastique The Symphonie Fantastique was composed by Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is a large scale work with distinguishing programmatic origin and contains five movements. The first movement of this piece is an allegro, followed by a waltz, then to a slow movement, to a march, at last a finale. This is one of the first programmatic symphonies. The movements of this symphony combine a fixed idea along with other elements to connect the movements to one another. The fixed idea is in each of the movements. Berlioz uses methods in his orchestration from his inspirations of opera. You can tell by the English Horn and Harp used. In the first movement of Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz introduces the emotional calmness by the slowness of the build using string instruments. The slow introduction suggests the need for desire to love. The following allegro suggests the strong feelings inspired by love. Around two minutes in there are a lot of crescendos and decrescendos, constantly rising in volume and becoming quite again. This section may suggest positives and negatives of falling in love. The tone color becomes rather gloomy and sad, almost like there was a death or rain clouds are forming. At four minutes there are plucking strings which sound like rain drops to me. In the next couple minutes the rain sound continues with loud spontaneous strikes of lightning and thunder. The rain storm brings a bit of chaos and distress to the feeling of the first movement. The quickness in change from one sound to the next is rapid and rough sounding. Around the nine minute mark the song goes back to calmness but that swiftly goes back to the quickened uneasy tone created by the high pitched notes. The second movement is a waltz, beginning with a build-up using harps and other various stringed instruments. The song then turns to a dance rhythm. This sounds as

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