Ravinia Festival

PROGRAM MUSIC

Program music is music inspired by a non--musical idea or object. It might be physical paintings, such as in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition; or a story, as in Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice. (The term is most often used for instrumental music; vocal music, which almost always has a text, by its very nature tends to be programmatic.) It became especially popular in Romanticism during the 19th century, and one of the finest examples of it is Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique--also called Episode in the Life of an Artist. Berlioz provided a written program that he had published before the work's premiere and distributed at the actual first performance. Symphonie Fantastique is often called autobiographical, since it was inspired by the composer's real--life infatuation with the actress Harriet Smithson.

Music without a non--musical basis is called "absolute music." Although a story can sometimes be tacked onto such a work, as in the Walt Disney film Fantasia 2000, absolute music is usually intended to be enjoyed purely for the sake of organized sound, the way one can be moved by the colors of a beautiful sunset without assigning any meaning to it. The finest program music--and Symphonie Fantastique certainly falls into this category--can also be enjoyed as absolute music, without any knowledge of the "program" that inspired it.

SYMPHONY

A symphony is a form of music, not a group of musicians. You sometimes hear people say, "Last night we heard the symphony play downtown," but what they really mean is they heard the orchestra play. The confusion is because many orchestras have the word "symphony" in their names, like our own Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This distinguishes it as a large group dedicated to classical music, as opposed to a dance orchestra or the orchestra for a Broadway theater or opera house.

By the time Berlioz was composing music, most symphonies had four movements (one of the many distinctions of Symphonie Fantastique is that it has five movements instead of four). Usually the first movement is in what is known as "sonata form," which is something we don't need to go into right now. The second movement is usually slow and calm; the third is usually brisk and dance--like; and the fourth tends to be fast and very showy. But remember that these are generalities, and not always true, as Berlioz proves.

MOVEMENT

A movement is a portion of a larger work that can usually stand by itself. Sometimes a movement is composed so that it runs directly into the movement that follows it, but more often a movement feels "finished" when it concludes. Movements in many symphonies are named after the Italian words for their tempo, or speed. In his Symphonie Fantastique, however, Berlioz gives them names derived from the work's program, or story.

ROMANTICISM

Romanticism in art does not refer specifically to feelings of love; it was an artistic development in the early 19th century that affected music, painting and literature. Artists (including writers and musicians) during that time became more interested in feelings than thoughts. Personal expression was considered more important than adhering to established forms. Subject matter often became darker and more frightening (as in the last two movements of the Symphonie Fantastique). And artists became more aware of their national differences. The principles of Romanticism, which by its very nature differed from composer to composer, dominated music roughly until the start of the 20th century.

DIES IRAE

The last movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique quotes a tune that was very familiar to audiences of his day, the "Dies irae." A portion of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, it describes the end of the world. The opening of the Latin text translates roughly as
"Day of wrath, that dreadful day
When heaven and earth shall in ashes lay."
Because the idea of the end of the world is such a frightening thought, the opening melody of the "Dies irae" is often quoted by composers who want to invoke feelings of dread and doom.

ORCHESTRATION

Many pieces of music can be played on different instruments. For instance, the "Star--Spangled Banner" can be sung, or you can play it on the piano or electric guitar, or it can be performed by a marching band or a string quartet or any other combination of instruments. "Orchestration" refers to the instruments on which a composer has decided his or her music should be performed. He or she may have written it at the piano, or on a guitar, and then orchestrated the music, that is, written out the music so that all the instruments of an orchestra can perform the work together. Some composers, such as Berlioz, were so gifted that they conceived their music for the orchestra itself, instead of composing a simplified version and then orchestrating it.

SCORE

A score indicates the specific orchestration that a composer intends. Orchestra musicians almost always use written music, rather than playing from memory, and each member of the orchestra has a "part," which shows only the notes that their instrument plays. The conductor, on the other hand, needs to know what everyone is playing so that he or she can coordinate all those parts into one glorious sound, so the conductor uses a score. A conductor's score has every musician's part written out, one on top the other, so that at any given moment, the conductor can tell at a glance what everyone should be playing.

IDÉE FIXE

The idée fixe (pronounced "EE--day FEECKS") was an invention of Berlioz's. It refers not only to a specific melody that appears throughout his Symphonie Fantastique, but also to the thought behind it, his obsession with the woman with whom he was in love. Each time it recurs, it sounds different--through different orchestration or rhythm or the way it is used, to reflect the various feelings and reactions that it invokes from the artist who was the true subject of Symphonie Fantastique--Berlioz himself.


	One Score -- One Chicago -- Ravinia's U.'s interactive exploration of Symphonie Fantastique. Click here to learn more!

Ravinia Festival 2003 has created a compelling mix of time--honored classics with provocative, exciting new work! Click here for special Season Highlights!