Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Alone in the countryside
The third movement of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique describes a day in the countryside. At the beginning and end we hear Berlioz call out to a shepherd who is far away in the distance tending to his sheep.
1. Take a sheet of paper and place it landscape (long edge top and bottom) in front of you. Draw a picture of Berlioz one side of the page and a shepherd on the other.
2. Listen to the beginning of the movement 3 (below), just the opening cor anglais and oboe tunes. The cor anglais (the first sound you hear) is portraying Berlioz, the oboe (the second sound) is the shepherd. Can you work out what they are saying to each other and add this to your drawing as speech bubbles – one for each musical ‘sentence’?
3. On another sheet of paper recreate your drawing as you listen to the end of the movement. (scroll to 15’00) Can you spot the differences to the music and make this clear in your artwork?
4. Listen several times until you have finished your drawing. Did you spot that Berlioz is now alone - there is no response to his cor anglais melody – and there is now a lot of rumbling thunder from the timpani. Have you included this on your second drawing?
You can hear the full movement by going to the previous #lockdownlistening Symphonie Fantastique task and scrolling through the video to 22’10 - this might inspire even greater artwork!
Here’s my version (yours will be better!). Always remember THERE’S NO WRONG ANSWER!
You can download a full teachers’ pack and read more about the LSO’s Space concert here -