Hector Berlioz

The first true autobiographical symphony, in which his thwarted, unrequited love for Harriet Smithson was transferred wholesale to the orchestra.

• The melody that appears in the introduction of the first movement is the idée fixe (fixed idea) symbolizing the beloved woman, and it recurs in changing guises throughout all five movements.
• In the ball scene of the second movement, two harps spread their chords note by note in flowing arpeggios over a waltz rhythm, painting a picture of splendor.
• In the fourth movement, "March to the Scaffold," the timpani and low brass approach like footsteps, until at the end the whole orchestra breaks off for an instant to depict the moment the head falls.
• In the fifth movement, "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath," an old chant melody that sings of death (the Dies irae) appears amid tolling bells, distorted in the low brass.
• Among performers, how freely the introduction of the first movement is stretched out is considered the passage that sets one conductor's personality apart from another's.

Begun at Paganini's request, only for him to refuse to perform it, this work would later reverse the relationship between the two men.

• The solo viola enters quietly in the opening of the first movement and sings the theme of "Harold," who wanders through the entire work; rather than standing out brilliantly as in a concerto, it passes through the orchestra like a contemplative onlooker.
• Because of the story that Paganini rejected the solo part as too plain, the piece is spoken of as one that demands "virtuosity that hides its virtuosity."
• In the second movement, "March of the Pilgrims Singing the Evening Prayer," the viola melody floats above the low strings as they repeat steadily like footsteps.
• In the third movement, a serenade, the oboe and English horn trade a folk-dance melody from the Italian mountains.
• In the fourth movement, themes from the earlier movements return in fragments and are erased one by one, and after even the viola withdraws, the work ends in an orchestral tutti depicting the brigands' frenzy.

A state commission honoring the fallen, and the work with the largest forces he could pour himself into during the years he wrote criticism to make a living.

• In the "Dies irae," brass bands placed at the four corners of the stage ring out from every side as if proclaiming the Last Judgment, considered the most overwhelming moment in live performance.
• The passage in which several sets of timpani play at once, rumbling low like thunder, is the emblematic moment of a work notorious for the sheer size of its forces.
• In the "Lacrymosa," the chorus repeats a melody that rises and falls like a lament, gradually piling up sorrow.
• In the "Sanctus," in contrast to the massive scoring, only a solo tenor and the women's chorus sound, pure and slender, forming a dramatic contrast with the passion that came before.

Completed with Paganini’s gift of money just after the failure of Benvenuto Cellini, the work brought his long devotion to Shakespeare to orchestral fruition.

• The ‘Scène d’amour’ opens in a garden at night with a melody the strings sing low and tender, then swells gradually like an operatic aria.
• Chorus and soloists appear, yet Romeo and Juliet themselves are never given a word — it is often remarked that the two lovers’ feelings are expressed by the orchestra alone.
• In the ‘Queen Mab Scherzo,’ strings and woodwinds brush past as lightly as the beat of a butterfly’s wings, conjuring the fairy of dreams.
• In the finale, two opposing themes representing the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues at last merge into one, bringing reconciliation.

Written as his marriage was faltering and he was growing close to Marie Recio, these songs, moving between love and loss, are read as mirroring his later life.

• A cycle of six songs set to poems by Théophile Gautier, its mood shifts distinctly from song to song, from the flutter of love to the grief of loss.
• The first song, ‘Villanelle,’ begins with the buoyant rhythm of a spring walk through the woods with a lover, but by the fourth, ‘Absence,’ a similar meter slows as if in supplication.
• Originally written with piano accompaniment, it was orchestrated in 1856; because this coincided with his remarriage, the melancholy of the later songs is often read alongside his personal life.
• There is a custom of assigning the six songs to different voices (soprano·mezzo-soprano·tenor, and so on), so the lineup of singers varies a little from one performance to the next.

Staged at his own expense, it failed at the box office and left him deeply in debt — the most extreme case of devotion and frustration locked together.

• The ‘Hungarian March’ was originally a Hungarian tune with no connection to the drama, but it was inserted into a scene of Faust crossing the Hungarian plains, and it is famous for the story of how it sent the audience into raptures at the Hungarian premiere.
• In the ‘Minuet of the will-o’-the-wisps,’ the woodwinds play in short, detached, bouncing notes (staccato), as if lightly dotting points, to depict the flickering of the wisps.
• Marguerite’s ‘Romance’ sings of aching longing over an accompaniment that seems to turn a spinning wheel, and it is often compared with Schubert’s lieder.
• In the final scene of Faust’s ride to hell, low brass and chorus mingle into an uproar, and after a sudden silence a chorus in an infernal language appears, sending a chill through the listener.

The largest opera of his career, into which he poured a lifetime of ambition; a complete staging never took place in his lifetime.

• In Part 2, ‘Les Troyens à Carthage,’ the duet sung by Queen Dido and Aeneas, a passage depicting the two lovers beneath the moonlight, is widely beloved.
• In Dido’s final aria in Act 5, the low strings sink heavily, foreshadowing the queen’s despair and suicide.
• In Part 1, ‘La prise de Troie,’ the scene in which the wooden horse enters the city heightens the tension by layering ominous harmonies over a marching rhythm.
• Because of its immense length of some five hours, it is rarely staged complete, so encountering a live recording of a full performance is itself counted a special experience.