Line #23 Music/SymphonieFantastique


1	'''''Symphonie Fantastique''''' is the most famous work of French composer Music/HectorBerlioz (1803-1869), released in 1830. The piece was a major [[GenreTurningPoint game changer]] for Romanticism, as it developed the approach of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's sixth symphony, the ''Pastorale'', to a programmatic symphony that even contained a ''plot'' told in musical pictures, anticipating the Tone Poem of Music/FranzLiszt as well the Leitmotif of Music/RichardWagner.
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3	The plot consists of five acts, akin to theatre. [[AllThereInTheManual The story was written down by Berlioz himself]] and included in the program of the premiere.
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5	1. An artist is struggling with himself. He meets his LoveInterest and falls head over heels, the Leitmotif or Idée fixe is established here. 2. The artist meets her at a ball and her ironic flirting is too much for him. 3. The artist flees into the countryside and has some beautiful calm hours. His Love Interest keeps haunting him, represented by the idée fixe bursting back into the score, so [[DrivenToSuicide he decides to commit suicide by an opium overdose]]. 4. In his [[DyingDream dying thoughts]], he imagines being decapitated in a public execution for killing her inside his fantasies. PlayedForLaughs musically with a huge march sequence. 5. [[GainaxEnding In a deeper layer of his dying thoughts]] (think of [[MindScrew twice-dead]]), he imagines his LoveInterest participating in a witches' feast, represented in a grotesque parody of the idée fixe juxtaposed with the [[DeathlyDiesIrae Dies Irae motif]].
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7	The symphony is said to be an expression of LoveHurts on Berlioz' part, who fell madly in love with the actress Harriet Smithson, whom [[RelationshipUpgrade he eventually married]] after [[EarnYourHappyEnding she listened to this musical love letter]], but it became an unhappy marriage for both sides and [[CerebusRollercoaster they divorced again]].
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9	!!This piece provides examples of:
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11	* AllThereInTheManual: If it wasn't for Berlioz' detailed story, one could only speculate what this piece was about.
12	* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: The Witches' Sabbath movement is the artist's vision of himself at (a parody of) his own funeral.
13	* CerebusRollercoaster: From DownerBeginning of a suffering artist, to the hope of a new love, to love turning into cruel rejection, LighterAndSofter section with peace of mind in the countryside, then unbearable emotional pain when the idée fixe comes back, eventually DrivenToSuicide with opium, then an execution scene that becomes DenserAndWackier as it progresses concludes with a DownerEnding which is played for laughs, complete with DancePartyEnding.
14	* DancePartyEnding: In a prime example of Romantic Irony, the piece ends in a frenetic dance during Witches' Sabbath.
15	* DeathlyDiesIrae: The TropeCodifier, about a third of the way into the "Witches Sabbath" piece, ''Dies Irae'' becomes the main line, slowly pounded out on the low brass, like a march of doom.
16	* DenserAndWackier: The fourth movement and ''especially'' the finale, compared to the seriousness of the third movement.
17	* DespairEventHorizon: The artist overdoses on opium, giving rise to the 4th and 5th movements of the symphony.
18	* DisneyAcidSequence: In a musical example, he imagines his own execution and then a Witches' Sabbath; the music becomes frenzied and psychedelic.
19	* DownerEnding: ''PlayedForLaughs'' thanks to massive use of Romantic Irony. The protagonist is ill due to an opium overdose, but his mad hallucinations are quite entertaining, including the IronicEcho of the centuries-old ''Dies Irae'' motif, which turns it into a tasteful self-parody.
20	* DyingDream: Big time, the last two movements present what may be his dying thoughts.
21	* FollowTheLeader: Earned a massive cult following among composers. Music/FranzLiszt and Music/RichardWagner directly picked up on its innovations.
22	* ForDoomTheBellTolls: In "Witches Sabbath" two bells repeatedly strike in a descending fourth interval, then the ''Dies Irae'' starts.
23	* GainaxEnding: The artist hallucinates about being decapitated and then imagines a full-fledged Witches' Sabbath.
24	* IronicEcho: The idée fixe is perverted in the finale as a jovial dance motif, invoking a crude way of expressing HotterAndSexier set in music.
25	* {{Leitmotif}}: The "idée fixe," a short theme representing either the artist's beloved or his obsession with her (or both). It is the main theme of the first movement, reappears at key points in every subsequent movement, and is transformed into a twisted, mocking version of itself during the DancePartyEnding.
26	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: The artist goes to the countryside as an attempt to escape his LoveInterest, but he keeps seeing her. It's left ambiguous whether she actually is there or if he's just hallucinating.
27	* MickeyMousing: "March to the Scaffold" ends with a depiction of the guillotine blade falling and the severed head bouncing.
28	* MindScrew: The last two movements are a fantasy of the artist, who madly hallucinates about being decapitated and witnessing a witches feast in which his LoveInterest participates.
29	* MushroomSamba: The last two acts depict the effects of opium on the artist.
30	%%* {{Romanticism}}: One of the most famous examples.
31	* SoundtrackDissonance: The fourth movement, "March to the Scaffold", is based around a jaunty march. Certainly doesn't sound like a man about to get his head cut off.

Context Music / SymphonieFantastique