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A portion of the program note prepared by Hector Berlioz for his 1845 publication of Symphony Fantastique, one of several different outlines he affixed to the piece during his lifetime:

Episode in the life of an artist: Symphonie Fantastique in 5 parts

Note: The composer’s intention has been to portray various episodes in the life of an artist. Since the work cannot rely on the assistance of speech, an outline of the instrumental drama must be set out in advance. The following program should therefore be approached like the spoken text of an opera, serving as an introduction to the musical movements and illuminating their character and expression.

Program: The author imagines that a young musician, afflicted by the moral sickness a famous writer has called le vague des passions, sees for the first time a woman who represents his ideal and falls desperately in love with her. By a strange anomaly, the beloved never presents herself to the artist without being associated with a musical idea, in which he senses an undeniable passion but also nobility and shyness. The melodic image and its model haunt him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe. This explains the constant recurrence in all the movements of the symphony of the melody which launches the first allegro.

The resulting work – manic, impassioned and revoluntionary – is the centerpiece of this weekend’s Berlioz blowout at the WCFSO.