11 - Other Approaches

Summary

Returning to the cultural context in which Berlioz conceived his work, other angles of approach to the music, the programme, and the sequel have become a focus of recent approaches to Symphonie fantastique. Some recent overviews appear in biographies of Berlioz, all of which necessarily return to his own Memoirs when relating his music to his personality and life experiences. Scientific developments interested him and may have had an effect on his music, as did his study of instruments, old and new, later expounded in a treatise. Writers have reviewed aspects of the supernatural within the ‘fantastic’ and the importance of the symphony in the development of programmatic instrumental music (related to something outside itself, biographical, literary, or visual). Symphonie fantastique, while it should not overshadow Berlioz’s other works for the concert hall or the stage, remains the critical turning point in his development.