What sound effects are in Dream of a Witches Sabbath?
What sound effects are in Dream of a Witches Sabbath?
Berlioz uses a range of orchestral effects to create the scene of a gathering of witches – violins using the backs of their bows to create bubbling cauldron sounds, the sound of a funeral bell and outbursts of musical laughter.
What is the theme of Dream of a Witches Sabbath?
Symphonie fantastique is an epic for a huge orchestra. Through its movements, it tells the story of an artist’s self-destructive passion for a beautiful woman. The symphony describes his obsession and dreams, tantrums and moments of tenderness, and visions of suicide and murder, ecstasy and despair.
When was Dream of a Witches Sabbath written?
1830
14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire on 5 December 1830.
When Berlioz was 23 he fell in love with which actress for whom he composed his Symphonie?
actress Harriet Smithson
At the age of twenty-four Berlioz fell in love with the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, and he pursued her obsessively until she finally accepted him seven years later.
Which instrument is playing the idée fixe?
Berlioz salvaged this theme from his abandoned Messe solennelle. The idée fixe returns in the middle of the movement, played by oboe and flute. The sound of distant thunder at the end of the movement is a striking passage for four timpani.
What does the idée fixe represent in Symphonie Fantastique?
Berlioz’s work is about a young artist. In the music the young artist is represented by a tune. This tune is often heard during the symphony. That is why it is called an “idée fixe”, which means a “fixed idea”, i.e. an idea that keeps coming again and again.
How many movements does Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique?
five movements
Berlioz called the five movements inspired by this program: “Reveries and Passions,” “A Ball,” “In the Country,” “March to the Scaffold” and “Dream of the Witches Sabbath.” All of the symphony’s innovations — the radical orchestration, eerie harmonies, eccentric rhythms, and the idée fixe representing the beloved (a …
Who wrote Symphonie fantastique?
Harriet Smithson He then wrote his Symphonie Fantastique. He then wrote the symphony to describe his love for her and his unhappiness because she was not interested in him. When Harriet heard the symphony two years after it was first performed, she realized that it was a symphony about her.
