Skip to content


 Select a Chapter |       RSS  Today in Music History |             Online Listening Lab


"To render my works properly requires a combination of extreme precision and irresistible verve, a regulated vehemence, a dreamy tenderness, and an almost morbid melancholy."

Key Points

  • French composer and conductor Hector Berlioz wrote Symphonie fantastique, a five-movement program symphony, while living in Italy.
  • The program for the work drew on his personal life and on his infatuation and courtship with the actress Harriet Smithson.
  • Berlioz was an innovative writer for orchestra, introducing new colors and instrumental techniques to the ensemble.
  • The five movements of Symphonie fantastique are unified by a recurring theme (idée fixe) representing his beloved.

Section Menu

Norton Gradebook

Instructors now have an easy way to collect students’ online quizzes with the Norton Gradebook without flooding their inboxes with e-mails.

Students can track their online quiz scores by setting up their own Student Gradebook.