Thanks go to Caro for her help with the courtroom dialogue in the fourth part, to oybolshoi for talking to me about the program notes, and to H.F., for her love, time, thought, and patience.
Program Notes: About the "Symphonie Fantastique"
Written by French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830, the "Symphonie Fantastique" is based on parts of the novel Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas DeQuincy, as well as Goethe's "Faust" and Victor Hugo's poem "La Ronde du Sabbat." It follows the Gothic style of literature, and falls into the Classical era of Western music.
From the aforementioned works came the passage known as the idée fixe (ee-day feex) or the "fixed idea," a recurring theme symbolizing the composer's beloved, which I have turned into a theme of a plea that echoes through the Marauders' minds: "James," he thought, "please forgive me." The true spark of the "Symphonie Fantastique" was Berlioz's romantic interest in a Shakespearean actress named Henrietta Smithson, whom he eventually married. Berlioz copied bits of his previous musical works into the "Symphonie Fantastique;" the idée fixe is from a cantata he wrote called "Herminie."
The first movement, "Reveries-Passions," is the exposition of the idée fixe, which is repeated through this movement and indeed the entire work. The audience is introduced to this strange dream world and the hopeless love of a young man. The second movement, "Un Bal," or "A Ball," is a waltz. The man dreams of dancing with his love at a ball, but her appearance troubles him. The third movement, "Scene aux Champs," or "Scene in the Country," is a pastoral scene with a calm overtone and banter between the solo oboe and English horn. At the end of the movement, rolling thunder is heard in the distance with the entrance of four timpani (kettledrums), each played by a single player, as the man wonders if his love is deceiving him. One solo continues to play, but the other does not respond.
In sharp contrast to this is the fourth movement, "Marche au Supplice," translated "March to the Scaffold" or sometimes "March and Procession to the Gallows." The young man overdoses on opium, and has terrifying visions that he killed his love and is sentenced to die for his crime. This is the first time in the work that a full percussion section is heard. We do not hear the idée fixe until the end of the movement, when it is played once by a solo clarinet and is followed by a strike from the percussion section and plucking of string instruments (pizzicato). This paints an aural picture of the man's execution by beheading. The movement ends just a few seconds later with a brass fanfare and drum roll.
The fifth movement, the "Hexensabbat," sometimes "Ronde du Sabbat," or "Song d'une nuit du Sabbat," translated "Witches' Sabbath" or "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath," portrays a dance of witches, where the man ends up after being executed. He sees his love as an evil witch, and the idée fixe returns as a crude dance. The other witches are happy to see her, and they join in the dance. The low brass enters with the theme of a liturgical "Dies Irae," a hymn describing Judgment Day sometimes used in a mass for the dead. The grotesque idée fixe and the "Dies Irae" (Dee-is Ear-ay) are played against each other with a funeral bell tolling in the background.
As Berlioz took literature and created music, I am taking his music and creating literature. You do not have to know the "Symphonie Fantastique" well, or at all, to understand this fic. The information I've provided should give you enough background so you can see the parallels between the symphony and the story and appreciate how the music gives to the words. The "Symphonie Fantastique" is one of my favorite orchestral works and it seemed to beg for a fic to go along with it. If you'd like to listen to the piece while reading, I recommend the recording of John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Orchestre Revoluntionaire et Romantique. Recordings may also be available online, or at your local public library.