Berlioz 5th movement.

Today I am going to be writing on the "Songe d'une nuit de sabbat," the 5th movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. My initial impressions of this movement were that it was slightly strange; while this may not be the most musically savvy description I begun to realize that this was in a large part due to
Berlioz's choice of instruments. The piece starts with an E-flat clarinet which strives to evoke the "strange noises, crackling, distant cries" to set the scene for the witches sabbath. The E-flat clarinet, accompanied by the other woodwinds, most definitely does have an unusual sound; it is almost squeaky and does seem to invoke the image of a cartoon witch. We hear the "idee fixe" here played by the clarinet, yet this is not necessarily apparent initially as it seems to be a far cry from the way it was first played at the beginning of the symphony. In a way, it seems much bolder and we learn from the program that this is because the protagonist, due to his failure to win the heart of this woman, has transformed her in his mind into a witch.

At around 3 minutes into the piece, we then hear the chimes, which are supposed to represent a funeral knell. At first, these chimes seem completely out of place in a symphony, yet they give an ominous feel to the music, which is then accompanied by a low brass instrument, which is interrupted by the woodwinds and high strings playing the wordless parody of the gregorian chant "Dies Ir." To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what to make of the music at this point, apart from the feelings of darkness which were then alleviated by the more energetic interjections of the high strings and woodwinds. In fact, the music eventually moves away completely from this ominous chiming to the fugal exposition of the "Witches Round Dance." We can hear the bass playing chromatically in the background, until the round dance is combined with "Des ir." At this point the music has become very energetic, polyphonic and confusing! Although, the effect of this is a building of energy, as if building towards a climax. Then comes the strange effect of the bows of the string instruments tapping (col legno), almost as though there are a bunch of skeletons dancing around, until we come to the end with a dramatic building of tension with the building in volume of the brass instruments and some of the woodwinds (I think flutes) playing at a very high pitch.