Sex, Drugs and Romanticism

      Perhaps the most angst-filled era in the history of western music is the Romantic period. For the romantics, composition was not an occupational calling or intellectual paradox, but an innate passion. These emotional rebels idealized every aspect in life and believed music should reflect their principles. Theoretically, they laughed in the faces of traditional tonic-dominant relationships and revered secondary dominants and foreign key modulations. Berlioz’s (b. 1803- d. 1869) Symphonie Fantastique and Liszt’s (b. 1811-1866) Liebestraum are two pieces that demonstrate the fervor and drama of the Romantic Movement.

        The Symphonie Fantastique is the ultimate example of program music. The work was written in 1830, when Berlioz was just discovering his infatuation for the British actress Harriet Smithson. Many cite her along with Berlioz’s experimentation with Opium as the muses for the symphony.  However Berlioz’s memoirs allude to Goethe’s Faust—an epic poem about one man’s deal with the devil—for inspiration for the work. Berlioz supplied his own program notes for his “instrumental drama,” which relate the story of the music. The story is of a young artist who meets a woman so beautiful he becomes obsessed with her (first movement). He cannot shake her image even at the most exciting ball or peaceful countryside  (second and third movements) and he becomes increasingly lonely. Finally decides to kill himself with Opium, but it is only strong enough to knock him into a deep coma (fourth movement). While he sleeps he dreams he has been sentenced to death for the murder of his love and the procession to his death and funeral are filled with and orgy of terrible beings (fifth movement). An extravagantly large orchestration and inventive techniques create a new whimsical sound that narrates this fantastic story, while the constant presence of an idée fixe unites the movements.

            Liszt was interested and inspired by the Symphonie Fantastique, but the passion in his works is slightly more refined. Liebestraum are a set of three pieces that ooze sensuality. Though he composed many original works, Liszt was also inspired by transcriptions. He often transcribed his own work as well as the work of others (including Berlioz’s Symphony Fantasitque). Liszt completed the transcription of Liebestraum in 1850. Originally three separate lieder, the three pieces illustrate poems that tell of three very different types of love. The first poem Hohe Liebe describes saintly and religious love, while the second, Gestorben war ich divulges a description of erotic love. Finally, O liebe so Lang du lieben kannst imparts the truest love of all, a mature, lifelong love. The works are reminiscent of vocal works written in the romantic style, featuring sweeping cadenzas in both hands and solid melodic lines, but the pieces are more than simple lieder. They ebb and flow, leading you on harmonically before quickly changing directions all the while dramatically swelling and then quickly becoming hushed.  Together these pieces band together to create a marvelous drug of sensational emotions, better than the most surreal dramas or bodice ripping novels.