Back in the day composers such as Beethoven would go about their daily lives and when musical ideas would pop into their heads, they would sketch them down in a notebook for later use. Perhaps when sitting at the piano, such a composer would begin to compile some melodic ideas for a piece and write them down on staff paper. Often these "sketches" went nowhere and were abandoned. Sometimes the composer fleshed them out and added harmony, and perhaps instrumentation and published them as polished pieces. Other times bits and pieces were left behind in treasured notebooks, some of which have ended up in modern museums. Several of Beethoven's notebooks are still around (BTW this is still how a lot of composition is done although notation software has changed the game to an extent).
When Beethoven was 22 years old, he wrote his first piano sonata: Sonata Fantasia in D. Somehow it was lost and never published. Recently, it turned up in Bonn - it was somewhere between a sketch and a completed piece. Most of the thematic ideas were in place but there are parts where Beethoven hadn't yet fleshed out the left-hand accompaniment. It was reconstructed and performed a few days ago. What you heard if you watched the video above was the world premiere of Beethoven's first and last piece...
According to Gramophone:
"There are a number of thematic similarities to Beethoven’s later works,
however. The first part of the Sonata shares a theme with the trio of
the third movement of his Symphony No 7. There are also several themes
common to the Pastoral, Appassionata and Moonlight Sonatas."
In 1830, only three years after the death of Beethoven, a young, French composer named Hector Berlioz premiered a piece which would change the world of art forever. The transformative effects of his piece were felt not only in the realm of music, but can be observed to this day in theater, movies, and television.
The piece is Symphony Fantastique, and at the time of its premiere the composer was 27 years old. He had been born just as Beethoven had begun to test the limits of the definition of the symphony and of classical music itself. The prodigious Berlioz took this unbridled drive to expand sonic and artistic boundaries and ran with it. In addition to utilizing new harmonies, forms, and instrumentations, the composer introduced one particular idea which ushered in a new era.
The idée fixe or "fixed idea" (yes folks, it is also the derivative of a modern psychological term of the same name) is a specific musical theme which represents a specific idea - or character, or place, or emotion, etc... It is a close relative, I'd say the father of the better known leitmotif made famous by Wagner, and hence a precursor for over a century of opera and film-scoring. Without Berlioz, you bet your ass Hans Zimmer wouldn't be living in this sweet mancave. Let's see what we're dealing with here:
Symphony Fantastique is one of very few "program" symphonies. This means that the music is a direct representation of a narrative and as such is accompanied by a written program (without which the piece should not be approached). A brief synopsis of the piece's five movements:
An artist falls totally in love, and whenever he sees his beloved her image is accompanied by a specific musical theme. He sees her everywhere and can't handle being alone and not knowing if his love is requited. Eventually he deals with his anxiety by ingesting a large amount of opium which, rather than killing him brings on a series of vivid hallucinations. He sees himself murder his beloved and he witnesses his own execution. The last movement is a "devilish orgy" complete with witches, ghosts, and the return of his beloved. Good stuff in general.
AND NOW THE MUSIC!!!
Here's the forth movement. Note how at times the music seems classical almost to the extent of feeling robotic, yet at others it pours forth emotion without thought to the musical sensibilities of the era. At 6.08, after an uproarious section we hear the idee fixe for the beloved float in the clarinets and ends abruptly with a loud tutti crash and a thud which signifies the guillotine on the artist's neck:
If you enjoy this, I encourage you to seek out a live performance, download (and pay for) the music, or better yet join me for a listening of the vinyl :) No matter how you listen, DON'T FORGET THE PROGRAM! It's below in case you can't find it elsewhere.
"Part I: Reveries--Passions. The author imagines that a young musician, afflicted with that moral disease that a well-known writer calls the vague des passions,
sees for the first time a woman who embodies all the charms of the
ideal being he has imagined in his dreams, and falls desperately in
love with her. Through an odd whim, whenever the beloved image appears
in the mind's eye of the artist, it is linked with a musical thought
whose character, passionate but at the same time noble and shy, he
finds similar to the one he attributes to his Beloved. This melodic
image and the model it reflects pursue him incessantly like a double idee fixe.
That is the reason for the constant appearance, in every moment of the
symphony, of the melody that begins the first Allegro. The passage from
this state of melancholy reverie, interrupted by a few fits of
groundless joy, to one of frenzied passion, with its moments of fury,
of jealousy, its return of tenderness, its tears, its religious
consolations--this is the subject of the first movement.
"Part II: A Ball.
The artist finds himself in the most varied situations--in the midst of
the tumult of a party, in the peaceful contemplation of nature; but
everywhere, in the town, in the country, the beloved image appears
before him and disturbs his peace of mind.
"Part III: Scene in the Country. Finding himself one evening in the country, he hears in the distance two shepherds piping a ranz des vaches
(shepherd's song) in dialogue. This pastoral duet, the scenery, the
quiet rustling of the trees gently brushed by the wind, the hopes he
has recently found reason to entertain--all come together to afford his
heart an unaccustomed calm, and to give a more cheerful color to his
ideas. He reflects upon his isolation; he hopes that his loneliness
will soon be over. But what if she were deceiving him! This mingling of
hope and fear, these ideas of happiness disturbed by black
presentiments, form the subject of the Adagio. At the end, one of the
shepherds takes up the ranz des vaches; the other no longer replies. Distant thunder--loneliness--silence.
"Part IV: March to the Scaffold.
Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself
with opium. The dose of narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him
into a sleep accompanied by the most horrible visions. He dreams that
he has killed his Beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to the
scaffold, and that he is witnessing his own execution. The procession
moves forward to the sounds of a march that is sometimes somber and
fierce, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which the muffled sound
of heavy steps gives way without transition to the noisiest clamor. At
the end, the idee fixe returns for a moment, like a final thought of love before the fatal blow.
"Part V: A Witches' Sabbath.
He sees himself at the sabbath, in the midst of a frightful troop of
ghosts, sorcerers, and monsters of every species, all gathered for his
funeral; strange noises, groans, bursts of laughter, distant cries
which other cries seem to answer. The Beloved melody appears again, but
it has lost its character of nobility and shyness; it is now no more
than a dance tune, mean, trivial and grotesque. It is she, coming to
join the sabbath ... 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-dance and the Dies irae combined."
