Program Music - music that depicts something without words

Beethoven Symphony #6 Pastorale considered 1st by some

the composer's feelings as he arrives in the country.

"By the brook,"

the country folk dancing and reveling.

a violent thunderstorm

the shepherds' song of thanksgiving

First movement: allegro non troppo

Second movement: andante molto mosso

Third movement: allegro

Fourth movement: allegro

Fifth movement: allegretto

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The Storm Fourth Movement

was profoundly influenced by the music of Beethoven

He also came under the spell of the famous Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson;

Hector Berlioz

Symphonie fantast

ique

The story behind the Symphonie fantastique is in part a reflection of Hector's uncontrollable feelings for Harriet Smithson.

He married her after his return from Rome, but it was a short-lived and troubled marriage.

REVERIES — PASSIONSThe author imagines that a young musician, afflicted with that moral disease that awell-known writer calls the vague des passions, sees for the first time a woman whoembodies all the charms of the ideal being he has imagined in his dreams, and he fallsdesperately in love with her.

A BALLThe artist find himself in the most varied situations—in the midst of the tumult of aparty, in the peaceful contemplation of the beauties of nature; but everywhere, intown, in the country, the beloved image appears before him and disturbs his peace of

SCENE IN THE COUNTRYFinding himself one evening in the country, he hears in the distance two shepherdspiping a ranz des vaches in dialogue. This pastoral duet, the scenery, the quiet rustlingof the trees gently brushed by the wind, the hopes he has recently found some reasonto entertain—all concur in affording his heart an unaccustomed calm, and in giving amore cheerful color to his ideas. He reflects upon his isolation: he hopes that hisloneliness will soon be over. —But what if she were deceiving him!

MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLDConvinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. Thedose of the narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him into a sleep accompanied bythe most horrible visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he iscondemned and led to the scaffold, and that he is witnessing his own execution. Part

Fifth Movement"Dream of the Witches' Sabbath"

He sees himself at the sabbath, in the midst of a frightful troop of ghosts, sorcerers,monsters of every kind, come together for his funeral. Strange noises, groans, burstsof laughter, distant cries which other cries seem to answer. —A roar of joy at her arrival.—She takes part in the devilish orgy.—Funeral knell, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, sabbath round-dance.

The sabbath round and the Dies irae combined.

Infernal atmosphere (soft muted strings)

Shrieks of laughter

A vulgar tune trivial and grotesque (clarinet)

Bells toll for the dead

Dies irae - Death Chant

Burlesque of the Dies irae

Dance of the Witches

The dance and Dies irae combined