A walk in the score Articles

How did an amateur composer manage to weave one of the most magic carpets in the history of music? How did he create a narrative sound that transports us in an exhilarating journey to the fairy tale dimension of the far east?

Certainly Berlioz’s most popular work, the Symphonie Fantastique could be defined as the first psychedelic symphony.

In this post, we’ll go through an analysis of the 1st mov. and Berlioz’s own program notes, both from 1845 and from 1855. And of course, some technical tips.

Notoriously, The Sorcerer’s apprentice was used in the Disney cartoon Fantasia. But the great popularity that it got from it also shadowed some of its unique characteristics, such as its structure and its orchestration.

The Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a dead princess) is one of Ravel’s most popular pieces and one that sooner or later comes to the attention of any conductor: it’s relatively simple, with a very linear structure, and it’s scored for a chamber orchestra. The real challenge is hidden in the orchestration and all the nuances that need to emerge by reading through the lines.