Symphonie Fantastique:Episode de la vie d'un Artiste...en cinq parties (1830)
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) wrote this piece as a semi-autobiographical work about a young artist who is madly in love with a woman he can not have. The woman, the object of his desire, is represented throughout the work by a idee fixe. An idee fixe is a small musical idea, usually a phrase or just a sketch of an idea, that is used to represent people, objects or an emotion. Throughout the Fantastique's five movements the woman makes an appearance.
The fourth movement, Marche au Supplice (March to the Scaffold) describes a dream brought on by the artist's ingestion of a dose of opium. In his dream (a nightmare, really) the artist is accused of murdering his beloved and his sentenced to death by guillotine. The music marches him along, through the cheering crowd, to his death. Just before the blade comes down, the artist sees his beloved (here played by a clarinet). The clarinet's solo plaintively sings out to the artist, calling to him--and is cut short by the drop of the blade! The resulting pizzicato (plucked) sounds we hear is the artist's head dropping down the steps. After a beat, the audience is heard cheering enthusiastically. What brilliant composing!
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