Background

Historical Context

Notable events of the early 19th Century

1801: Britain began to rise as an industrial power

1801: Britain integrated Ireland into its kingdom.

1803: The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million

1803: Ohio became the 17th US state

1803: The Irish began to rebel against British rule

1808: John Dalton theorized that matter consists of a range of atoms, each of a distinct weight.

1820: The US became the world's biggest cotton producer of raw cotton.

1821: Napoleon Bonaparte died at the age of fifty-one

1823: The beginning of steam-powered shipping

1825: Louis XVIII died

1826: The Spanish Inquisition ended

1827: New York passed a state law emancipating slaves

1829: Andrew Jackson becomes the seventh US President

1829: Scotch tape was invented

Key movements of the early 1800s: Women's suffrage, child labor limitations, abolition, temperance, prison reform.

Notable events of 1830

The Great fire of New Orleans began

The Book of Mormon was published

Ecuador gains its independence

'Mary Had a Little Lamb' by Sarah Josepha Hale was published

The Indian Removal Act was passed by the Congress and signed into law

The French invaded Algeria

Charles X of France abdicated the throne

The Belgian Revolution began

The first railway station opened in the United States in Baltimore Maryland.

Symphony Fantastique was written (for reference, this happened 31 years before the American Civil War began)

Suggested Recordings

History of the Composer

Birthdate: December 11, 1803
Birthplace: La Côte-St-André, Isère, France (near Grenoble)
Childhood:
- Learned to play the flute and guitar
- Became a self-taught composer
- Convinced by his father (a physician) to go into the medical field
1821: Went to Paris to study medicine
1823: Obtain a degree in science, then quit studying medicine to follow his passion for music.
- This led to disagreements between Berlioz and his parents that embittered nearly eight years of his life.
1826: Enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire
1830: Won the Prix de Rome.
1830: Composition of Symphonie fantastique (perhaps his most famous composition)
1830: Premiere of Symphonie fantastique
1833: Married Harriet Smithson
1834: Berlioz’s first and only son, Louis-Thomas Berlioz, was born
1854: Harriet Smithson (first wife) died in March
1854: Berlioz married Marie Recio (a singer) in October
- They had been having an affair since the early 1840s
1840s-50s: Berlioz experienced musical & financial success
- Became known as a French composer, critic, and conductor
1862: Marie Recio (second wife) died in June
1867: Louis-Thomas Berlioz died in June
1869: Berlioz died in Paris in March 8

Compositional Inspiration & History

March to the Scaffold is the fourth movement of Symphonie Fantastique. The Symphony as a whole was inspired by the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, in her role as Ophelia.
- "Widely recognized as an early example of program music... attempts to portray a sequence of opium dreams inspired by a failed love affair. The composition is also notable for... its innovative use of a recurring theme—the so-called ideé fixe (“fixed idea” or “obsession”)—throughout all movements." (Britannica)
Plot: The Symphonie Fantastique portrays the dreams of a young man who, in the aftermath of a failed love affair, has taken an overdose of opium.
- Mvt. 1: Depicts the delights and despairs of love.
- Mvt. 2: The lover attends a ball, where he encounters the woman he can never possess, now in another man’s arms.
- Mvt. 3: The lover attempts (and fails) to escape his passions by traveling to the countryside
- Mvt. 4: The lover imagines that he has murdered his beloved and is executed for the crime.
- Mvt. 5: The lover is in hell at a witches’ sabbath, over which his beloved herself presides.
March to the Scaffold is the 4th movement of Symphonie Fantastique
- Tells the story of a fever dream, in which the artist takes opium & is plunged into a deep sleep of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, and led to the guillotine. He watches as an onlooker as his final thoughts of love are interrupted by the fatal blow, and his head bounces down the steps. (Berlioz's program notes)
- Berlioz claimed that he used music from an unfinished project to write the fourth movement in a single night.

Generics

Composed, published, and premiered in 1830
While Symphonie Fantastique is roughly an hour in length, March to the Scaffold is only about 5 minutes long.
The arrangement used for the assignments on this site can be found at Stanton's Sheet Music.