Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique

Movement 5

Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath

Programme

He sees himself at the sabbath, in the midst of a frightful troop of ghosts, sorcerers, monsters of every kind, come together 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 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 and the Dies irae combined.

 

Listening

Slow Introduction

Like the first movement, the finale begins with a slow introduction. It comprises five different musical elements in quick succession:

A. bars 1–2: tremolos in the strings performed with mute (“con sordino”) and with the tip of the bow (“a punta d’arco”); the strings combine into a fully diminished seventh chord (A#–C#–E–G), which possesses a suspensive and eerie-sounding quality the lower strings (cellos and double basses) play an ascending (octatonic) scale making up a tritone; this five-note scale is repeated three times

B. bars 3–4: reiterating three-note figure in the strings, both ascending and descending, sounding like the screeching and cackling of the witches who gather for the sabbath

C. bars 5–6: over the rumbling bass in the lower strings (cellos and double basses), the strings suddenly surge upward with pizzicatos in forte dynamics; the woodwinds (clarinet and bassoons) and brass (horns, trombones, and ophicleides) respond with a descending contour in staccato chords

D. bars 7–10: three woodwind instruments (piccolo, flute, and oboe) play in union a series of repeated notes, ending with a downward slide (or glissando); this high-pitch woodwind instruments create a shrilling and piercing sound the horn repeats the same melody an octave below like an echo, muted and in pianississimo

E. bar 11: a lead-in to the following bar, consisting primarily of a series of ascending perfect fourths

 

Idée fixe

48:43  Idée fixe – C clarinet (fragmented)  

The idée fixe returns in bar 21, played by the solo clarinet in C major. This symbolizes the that the beloved woman is now making her entrance to the sabbath; this melody is first played in pianississimo, sounding by itself from afar (“solo lointain”). As described in the program note, this idée fixe here is transformed, or deformed, into something grotesque, twisted and freakish: “The beloved melody appears again, but it has lost its character of nobility and shyness; it is no more than a dance tune, mean, trivial, and grotesque: it is she, coming to join the sabbath.”

Comparison with the idée fixe in the first movement:

  1. compound duple meter (6/8)
  2. he primary notes of the melody are embellished with ornaments, such as grace notes (acciaccatura) and trills
  3. played by the clarinet

Also notice the rolling of the bass drum (G. C.) when the idée fixe first appear in bars 21–8.

The idée fixe is cut short by a sudden outburst of excitement in bars 29–39, performed by the orchestra in tutti and in fortissimo dynamic. The orchestral texture borders on cacophony, as each instrumental part plays a different melodic line. The overall effect is one of ecstasy and euphoria, as if the congregation is in high anticipation of the upcoming sabbath.

49:00  Idée fixe – Eb clarinet 

In bars 40–64, the idée fixe reappears in full, now played by two E-flat clarinets (labelled as “petite clarinet” on the score), which has a more shrilling and piercing timbre. The oboes and clarinets in C now function as accompaniments, playing a series of pulsating rhythmic patterns supporting the main melody. The texture builds up gradually when more instruments join in.

  1. piccolo enters in bar 46, doubling the clarinet melody an octave above (note: piccolo is a transposing instrument up an octave); at the same time, the bassoons come in with a recurring arpeggiating pattern in the lower register
  2. violas and cellos join in (bar 52) to enrich the bassoon figuration above
  3. flutes enter in bar 56, doubling the main melody in unison (or an octave lower than the piccolo)
  4. oboes and first violins enter in bar 60, also doubling the main melody in unison

During the idée fixe, the music gradually builds up the tension and exciting. Everything culminates into an exciting transitional passage in bars 65–83, featuring running semiquavers and fortissimo dynamic. The texture finally caves in during bars 78–83 when both the woodwinds and brasses drop out; the strings play a quick succession of falling thirds in syncopated rhythm, descending from the high to the low register and ending on a rumbling G bass (bar 92).

50:10  Transition 

A fragment of the Ronde du Sabbat (Sabbat round dance)—its first two measures—appears in bars 84–5. The complete melody of the dance will appear later in full as the subject of a fugue.

The chimes, also called tubular bells or the church bells, enter for the first time in bar 102, anticipating the next section of the movement: Dies irae (Day of Wrath). The sound of the chimes is often associated with the "funeral knell" (or death knell)—the tolling of the bells when someone dies. Playing in three octaves, it hammers out the tonic and dominant pitch (C–C–G) in long notes. The strings interrupt the hymn-like chimes with interjections from the Sabbat round dance.

 

Dies irae

50:42  Dies irae – Phrase 1 

This section is structured around the three phrases of the Dies irae (Day of Wrath), a Gregorian chant sung during the Mass of the Dead. The original chant is sung without meter (ametrical); here Berlioz sets each note of the Dies irae to last one bar long, a stately rhythm evocative of the solemnity of a religious ceremony. (An exception to this occurs near the end of phrase 1 and 3, where the supertonic D is held onto slightly longer in order to postpone the final resolution to the tonic C.)

The chant melody is performed by one ophicleide (a forerunner of the tuba) and four bassoons (an octave below) in forte dynamic; the attack of each note is also emphasized by an accent. The chimes continue with its “death knell” motif (C–C–G), played in three octaves.

  • Phrase 1 is then repeated by the brass instruments (French horns and trombones) in half the rhythmic value (that is, a dotted quaver for each melodic note) in bars 147–57. Instead of the monophonic texture as before, here the Dies irae melody is harmonized by different triads.
  • Then the woodwinds (piccolo, flutes, oboes upper, clarinets in Eb and C) and the strings (first and second violins, violas) perform the same melody in even shorter rhythmic values (alternating between crochets and quavers). The instruments are playing in parallel thirds (or sixths). A rapid ascending (C-minor melodic minor) scale is appended to the last note of the woodwind melody (bar 162) as a round-off of the first phrase.

  • The same succession of instruments occurs in Phrase 2 and Phrase 3 of the Dies irae: first by the ophicleide and bassoons, then by the brasses, finally by the woodwinds and strings. The rhythmic values are also reduced across repetition, from dotted minims to dotted crochets, and finally crochets and quavers.

51:20  Dies irae – Phrase 2 

52:45  Dies irae – Phrase 3 

At bar 222, a transitional passage ensues, foreshadowing the main melodic idea of the next section—the Ronde du Sabbat (Sabbat round dance). Over the sustained bass-drum rolls, snippets of the melody crop up among different string instruments, one following the other with increasing frequency. The texture builds up to fortissimo dominant seventh (V7) chord in bar 239–40, launching the music to the upcoming section.

 

Ronde du Sabbat

52:39  Sabbat Round Dance 

The Sabbat round dance is set in the manner of a fugue, with multiple statements of the main melodic idea (the subject) across different instruments. The subject of the fugal passage is shown here:

This subject, originally performed by cellos and double basses, is then imitated by different instruments in succession.

  1. Violin II (bars 248–55): dominant statement – answer
  2. Violin I + bassoons (bars 255–62): tonic statement – subject
  3. woodwinds + violas (bars 262–9): dominant statement – answer

An episode ensues in bar 262, featuring one bar of syncopated repeated notes and one bar of chromatic scale-like passage. The episode continues by sequencing up chromatically, ultimately climaxing on the Eb in bar 285.

(53:26) The subject seems to make its reappearance in bar 289 (corresponding to the middle entries in a fugue), but something seems to go awry. The dominant statement in the woodwinds begins in the minor mode, with the mediant note lowered by a semitone (Bb instead of B). This is immediately corrected by the lower strings, which come in two bars later in the major mode.

This is followed by a tonic statement of the subject, performed by the upper strings in bar 298. Everything seems to commence as expected, except for the last two bars, which, instead of bringing forth a cadence, now arises up to Eb by an ascending scale. 

Everything deescalates afterwards. The brass hammers out a four-note rhythmic pattern that is reminiscent of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony—the “fate-knocking” motif. The musical texture seems to get fragmented into slurred two-note and three-note figures in the woodwinds and strings respectively.

(53:43) The music gets quiet and mysterious from bar 330 onward. The strings play in murmuring two-note tremolos. The Sabbat round dance subject is neutralized into an ascending and descending arpeggios, while still preserving the original rhythmic profile. The quiet passage continues to get softer (“en diminuant toujours”) until it becomes nearly nothing (“presque rien”) near the end (bars 345–6).

In bar 348, the Gregorian chant Dies irae returns in fragments, played by the French horns and cellos. The chant melody is also distorted; for example, the A in the first phrase is lowered chromatically to Ab in bar 352. The violas respond with another variation of the Sabbat round dance, its melody transformed into an ascending and then descending chromatic scale (in parallel thirds).

(54:08) In bars 364, this chromatic version of the Sabbat subject launches into a stretto passage, building up the texture again by layering the instruments one after the other: cellos, then violas, violin II, violin I, flute & violin I.

(55:10) The music reaches a series of intense syncopated chords in bars 395–403. Furthermore, another series of non-syncopated chords, played by the brass, interlocks with the former in a hocket-like texture. The Sabbath subject then returns emphatically in full in bar 407, played by the strings in unison. 

 

Dies irae and the Sabbat round dance together

In this final section, the Gregorian chant Dies irae is combined with the Sabbat round dance subject in counterpoint.

  1. Dies irae is sounded forcefully by the woodwinds and brasses (“tutta forza”); it is transposed from C minor to A minor; some of the pitches in the second half are slightly altered from either Phrase 1 or Phrase 3 of the Dies irae.
  2. The subject of the Sabbat round dance appears in strings, starting on the dominant; it finishes in bar 421, after which it veers off into an unremitting scale-like passage in semiquavers, going in tandem with the Dies irae as a countermelody.
  3. The lower strings (cellos and double basses) provide a bass line to support the entire musical texture, which become tremolos after bars 422.

(55:49) This climatic combination of both themes leads further to an ascending passage in bars 435–43, featuring syncopated notes in Violin II.

(56:58) In bars 444 onward, Berlioz introduces a novel sonority: the col legno strings (indicated on the score “frappez avec le bois de l’archet”, meaning “hitting with the wood of the bow”). Notice that each string parts play a slightly different rhythm (a succession of quaver and semiquaver notes).

Against this col legno rhythmic pulses is a variation of the Sabbat round dance, played by the woodwinds and violas. The addition of the trills recalls the transformed Idée fixe that has appeared earlier in the movement (which represents the beloved woman who has turned into a witch).

The rest of the movement is a jubilant and exhilarating coda that brings the movement (as well as the entire symphony) to a satisfactory closure. One noteworthy feat of orchestration can be found in bars 485–91, where the tremolo strings and the bass drums alternate between pianissimo and fortissimo dynamics, over which fragments of the Dies irae is sounded by the ophicleides and bassoons, later in shorter note values by the trombones and horns.