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Explain how three composers of the romantic era used
programme music to great effect, referring to tonality and
expressive use of resources.
In Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, the composer uses tonality for expressive purposes,
to describe the many disturbing visions of an infatuated artist.
The first movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, “Reveries, Passions”,
establishes no clear tonal centre even at its very beginning, with the key and accidentals
indicating C minor, but nowhere is a C minor chord heard in its primary inversion. This is a
technique perhaps inherited from Beethoven, in which tonal ambiguity would be used for
dramatic effect, distancing the audience (and the artist) from the events, creating an alienating
effect, and here, establishing a restless mood which is heightened by the composer’s use of
fermata and operatic, interrupted scalic passages in the violins. This can indicate the helplessness
of the artist. At the Plus Vite, a clear tonal centre is established, that of C major, and a lively
theme is presented. This can be seen as representing the first glimpse of love, or the hope of love,
by the artist in this programme, and its shift to the tonic major is indicative of this. However, no
key is subsequently concrete in its establishment, and the music passes through various keys,
expressing the turbulence of emotions felt in this ‘tumult’, an idea that will be recreated in the
second movement. After bar 48-9, the music moves through Db, Ab major, C# minor, G# minor,
and arriving finally at C major, the prescribed home key. This quick movement through a
succession of seemingly unrelated keys can help to express the artist’s confusion and a move
away from the realism of music, to the drama of the theatre.
The key of F major for Berlioz’s second movement, Scene aux Champs, is a natural
choice. The natural hunting horn (without use of romantic crooks), was in the home key of F
major, and this therefore influenced many composers before the advent of the modern horn. It
also evokes the feelings of the countryside that Berlioz desires, and creates again the sense of
theatre that is so prevalent in the music of Berlioz. Confusion and frustration are never escapable
in this countryside movement, with diminished and chromatic chords being utilised after bar
102-3, again evoking a sense of unease and restlessness, whilst a dissonant Db major chord at
157 releases the thunderous and ominous timpani roles (played by four players). The oboe
melody at the start is akin to a shepherd's call, and yet by simply lowering tonality of the fourth
note of the second answering phrase, Berlioz evokes a sense of loneliness that pervades this
movement.
Berlioz’s use of instrumentation is ingenious and utilises many idiosyncratic sonorities.
Hector Berlioz uses the Ophicleide to double the lower brass in the introduction of the ‘Dies
Irae’ theme in the final movement. This instrument is a little used, ancient instrument, with a
crass, brassy timbre, perfect for the vulgarity and terror evoked by the Dies Irae theme.
The composer is also practised at creating dramatic effects through instrumentation. A
shift from bar 130 from G minor to Db is realised through an enharmonic shift, and this dramatic
and restless bi-tonality is again realised through bars 154-5. We cannot begin to imagine whether
or not this use of bi-tonality is conscious, or whether it is simply a result of organic tonal
movement, however what is sure is that it is used for dramatic effect, blaring confusion around
the audience and orchestra. What is perhaps deliberate is the creation of the tri-tone through the
use of G minor and Db, an interval commonly known as the ‘devil’s interval’. This is achieved
through alternating quickly between the wind and strings and then the brass section, creating the
effect that sounds are emanating from each corner of the orchestra on-stage, not only creating a
tonal effect, but also a dramatic one.
In Tchaikovsky’s Overture to Romeo and Juliet, the composer uses tonality to introduce
effectively a series of themes, using the available resources expressively. We must wait until the
‘Allegro’ section for the ‘Brawl theme’ to be introduced, and Tchaikovsky does so with stark B
minor chords and ensuing dissonance, describing the harsh conflict between the Montague and
Capulet families. This theme and section is characterised by strong dissonance, foremostly an
unresolved 9th in E minor - F#. Additionally, strong, syncopated rhythms are used to
disorientating effect, and the clash cymbals are utilised to great effect, with a timbre similar to
clashing blades. After the first exposition of the original brawl theme, the strings play
semiquavers, creating the effect of chaos in the scene of the battle, effectively utilising the vast
romantic string section available to Tchaikovsky himself to great and expressive effect.
An interesting combination of timbres introduce the ‘Love theme’ in Tchaikovsky’s
work, with the Cor Anglais combining with the viola, two characteristically dark and rich tones,
to create an exotic mix of colours to symbolise the love between Romeo and Juliet. A subsidiary
love theme is introduced subsequently, and this is characterised by a series of diminished chords
in the accompaniment, producing harmonic restlessness, and indicating a sense of alienation in
the love theme.
In the Coda, Tchaikovsky successfully exploits the timbral connotations of the timpani,
with the effect that the instrument's introduction appears almost like a funeral drum, as part of a
funeral march. The last restatement of the love theme, towards the final few bars, is in the key of
B major, bringing an almost icy sonority to the theme, as if a last remembrance or recollection of
the previously kindled love between the two protagonists.
In Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides Overture, composed between 1829 and 1830 on a
voyage of discovery in the Scottish Isles, the composer, and subsequently the audience, is
captivated by the awe and natural beauty of Fingal’s cave, the subtitle often attributed to this
orchestral overture. Tonality is used expressively throughout this relatively short composition. At
the very beginning of the music, B minor is contrasted with its relative major D major in close
harmony, creating a sense of rising, or rather perhaps the rising and falling tide and wake of a
pulsating ocean beneath Mendelssohn’s small steam boat.
The opening music reaches a turning point at bar 7-8, where sense of minor is dispelled
to reveal the true beauty of the cave, with a bright B major chord being heard at bar 7, creating a
brightening effect, however this is short-lived, and an almost instantaneous change back to B
minor creates a sense of mystery that is tightly associated with the overture’s depictions.
Diminished 7th chords at bar 27, created on top of the sharpened fifth of the previous bar
(in B), F natural, create a sense of movement that is connoted by the rich and vaguely dissonant
chord pattern. The diminished 7th, as with its use in the Berlioz, creates a sense of restlessness in
the strings and especially the tutti crescendo-diminuendo, evoking the constant movement and
unnerving power of the waves.
Orchestral forces are successfully implemented for expressive effect in the small
‘codetta’ at figure B, wherein ominous timpani rolls create the impression of incoming thunder
with the storm, whilst a syncopated horn and trumpet fanfare draw one’s attention for the first
time to the brass section, creating an effect similar to that of Berlioz’s in Symphonie Fantastique,
whereby one’s attention is thrown about the orchestra through expressive use of orchestral
resources.
From bar 130, the sharps in the key signature begin to be naturalised, and flats appear,
leading to the enharmonic shift in the bass at figure D, which leads to the tonal effect of
darkening, or sinking, and this evokes expressively, images of a darkening, mysterious cave, and
the possibility of an incoming storm, further heightened by the move to Bb minor, difficult to
hear aurally, yet a semitone down from the opening of the overture, again creating an ominous
sense of the foreboding.
The use of staccato quavers in the wind section at the key shift back to D major creates an
interesting and expressive timbral effect, wherein it is possible to evoke images of rain on the
swaying waves of the strings.
F# minor, the dominant minor of the opening, and home key of the overture, introduces
the powerful and effective storm, wherein all resources available are utilised, with fanfares in the
strings, brass and wind, with a swirling, tumultuous semiquaver pattern in the cellos and basses,
taken up by the entire string section, evoking the same tumult that appears in the statement of the
Idee Fixe in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, and in the ‘brawl theme’ apparent in
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture. Chromatic runs, akin to in Romeo and Juliet, can be
heard before figure F, heightening the effect of chaos evoked in the images of the storm.
The use of a dominant pedal before the final animato Coda creates a sense of tonal
inevitability that implies a perfect cadence, however when the coda takes over, in what can be
seen as a surprise, the sense of the onward flow of the waves and water is evoked.