Use of Instrumentation, Rhythm and Dynamics in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique

This activity challenged my critical listening skills and developed my ability to appraise music and use aesthetic sensitivity while concentrating on listening to identify the music elements. It was evident that the composer manipulates all the musical elements and qualities to accurately portray the narrative of the Moldau. Elements of music include duration, pitch, dynamic and expression, structure and style, timbre and texture (REF). For example, duration includes rhythm, beat, accent and tempo, that I was able to identify with the loud, triumphant calls of the hunter’s horn, the dominating French horns, and trumpets playing sharp, rhythmic notes. Also, pitch refers to the register of the note in a sound patter (REF). I was able to identify the cheerful mood of the melody that moves in an up and down pitch. Dynamics and expression are evident in the pattern of intensity and volume of the sound with loud trumpets as the river passes the rapids or the bassoon playing low and dark sounds that I thought contributes to dramatic

The theme of this story can be expressed as a story of suffering and racism. Though the theme may be thought of as just about a young boy who gets himself in trouble with drugs and tries to redeem himself by his passion of music; it

The symphony is in four very powerful and entertaining movements. The first movement begins in the pianissimo tone with the strings section, but quickly enters the fortissimo tone with the introduction of the woodwind, brass and percussion sections. The dynamics of the musical melody varies throughout the movement moving from crescendo to decrescendo modes. The first movement reminds you of a raging storm from soft blowing winds to thunder and lighting. The audience is mesmerized by this first movement of the sonata.

Berlioz believed in originality just like Beethoven, this is display in both composers’ unsymmetrical structures. Beethoven starts The Fifth with dramatically contrasting dynamics, as with Berlioz beginning with a normal Sonata structure, however, with extreme fortepianos. Both composers utilize sequencing and sheer repetition. Beethoven employs the ‘Fate’ motif across themes; and Berlioz’s variation of triplet rhythms. On the other hand, Berlioz introduces a larger orchestra than that of Beethoven’s (1st – 3rd movements), Beethoven relies on his own intimate thoughts, to convey his individual and majestic orchestral writings while Berlioz’s compositional technique lies in the nature of the

Through studying and analyzing ‘Maestro’ ,written by Peter Goldsworthy, and by viewing and analyzing the film ‘Edward Scissorhands’ directed by Tim Burton, it is evident that the composers of these texts allow the audience to see distinctive experiences with our eyes as well as with our minds through distinctively visual. The many visual, written and literary techniques have the ability to create a significant and impacting visual.

This journal is about the musical piece composed by a man named Benjamin Britten titled The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. This piece was surprisingly interesting to me as it created different feelings of emotions through the instruments volume, sync, and rhythm. I do like various instrumental styles of music, however, I was hesitant about listening to a classical style orchestra. Throughout the piece it seemed the sounds would constantly change, which reminded me of the early black and white cartoons that relied on classical style music to show the emotions they were trying to make the audience feel. For example, I remember a scene from an episode of the old cartoon Popeye, when there was fast paced instrumental music in the background while Popeye was saving Olive Oyl from a dangerous situation and they both were running to get to safety. The xylophone from Bitten’s composition is what made me think of that exact episode of Popeye and Olive Oly running to get to safety.

In literature, it is common for authors to apply different stylistic techniques in order to assist in providing the readers with a message. This idea is prominent in Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo, a novel which follows the story of three characters in the war-torn city of Sarajevo. Despite the fact that the characters never meet, they are each unified by a cellist and the song he plays for twenty-two days to honour the citizens who lost their lives while waiting in line for bread. Throughout the book, a recurring idea is that of hope for the future of Sarajevo, which is shown through the contrast of symbols from the beginning of the novel to the end, the cellist himself, and the adagio that the cellist plays. It is evident from the meaning created through objects and people that Galloway is able to use symbolism to enhance the idea that a city which once was destroyed can still be repaired.

Music is known to leave its mark on people helping them to overcome challenges in their lives or to give them courage to defy the odds. In one’s daily life, music is normally taken for granted or is seen as nothing special. As ordinary as it may seem, music can convey emotion in times when the body is numb or all hope is lost. Similarly, in The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, the cello’s music gave people hope and determination to live their lives in spite of the rampant siege around them. Therefore, music very much impacts the lives of the principal characters Dragan, Kenan, and Arrow.

Beethoven draws the listener in by providing multiple repetitions of the short fast-slow-fast waves. As I listened, I took notes about things I felt while hearing this. I felt like each time the symphony almost mellowed out with the violins, the listener was relaxed, but then the “fast” part came which included more instruments, and I felt awakened. When all the instruments came to a perfect harmony, it was soothing and satisfying to hear. I could also instantly see the emotions painted on conductor Claudio Abbado’s face as the wave increased in volume before mellowing out

Finally another common characteristic between the pieces is that the texture of both is polyphonic. Polyphonic texture shows two of more melodic lines competing for attention. The listener would hear the polyphonic texture during the soloist performances in Bach’s work. One instrument would imitate the other leading to the competition of being heard. This is also seen in Corelli’s sonata. The two violins are the showcase for the melodic lines and are imitated by the bass continuo, played by the organ and cello.

Symphonie Fantastique composed in 1845, by Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), is a program symphony; a five movement orchestral work that tells the story described by the CSO (2013) “as a purely musical melodrama”, a colorful illustration of the life of an artist, “replete with unrequited love, witches, guillotines and colorful, opium-induced hallucinations”. Its composer, Hector Berlioz at the age of twenty-seven wrote “Symphonie Fantastique both to explore German Romanticism and to give his hometown of Paris a symphony of its own; something not yet native to this city of operas and ballets” (CSO, 2013). Berlioz’s symphonic back ground in the operatic overture alludes to his program notes presented “as the spoken text of an opera”. The memorable dramatic flair of Symphonie Fantastique is understood to be one of the most well-known pieces of program music in his repertoire and is suggested that the story is a self-portrait of its composer, Hector Berlioz.

Ludwig van Beethoven once said, “Music, in truth, is the mediator between intellectual and sensual life”. Though he and his music were from an entirely different era, both still have relevance in our lives today. Music from the past is all around us on the radio, in commercials, and on the big screen. For example, one of Beethoven’s most famous symphonies, “Symphony No. 9”, makes an appearance in many movies. It even makes an appearance in Die Hard. Though we like to think that which is old is obsolete, we are everyday reminded that this is not true.

Hector Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique at the age of 27. He based the program on his own impassioned life and transferred his memoirs into his best- known program symphony. The story is about a love sick, depressed young artist, while in his despair poisons himself with opium. His beloved is represented throughout the symphony by the symbolic idee fixe. There are five movements throughout symphony. The program begins with the 1st movement: Reveries, Passions symbolizing the artist's life prior to meeting his beloved. This is represented as a mundaness and indefinable searching or yearning, until suddenly, he meets her and his longing abruptly ceases and is replaced by volcanic love. The

Nonetheless, because of Armadillo’s transparency, it will always be more realistic than The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach. Despite the use of extended shots on musical scores and original J.S. Bach transcripts that make the film resemble a documentary, The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach is just a reproduction of J.S. Bach’s life. No matter how real the film appears to be, it is a “pseudorealism of a deception aimed at fooling the eye,”

The film that I have chosen as a case study for my final paper is: Pan’s labyrinth (2006) by director Guillermo del Toro, and it is a case of real-fantastic cinema. Here I present my essay entitled “ The narrative power of sound in Pan’s labyrinth “of Guillermo Del Toro . It will analyze the sound design , the identification of its elements, the ways in which they are presented and their interrelations, to understand and explain how these elements work together in conjunction with the visual image, to support the narration of the story. Consequently, this research seeks to answer the question: How does the sound in the film ‘Pans Labyrinth' relates to