Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Program Music in the 19th Century
Experience music in the Romantic Era
Join Harvard University faculty in this course to learn about Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, a Romantic symphony that ushered in an era of narrative program music.
3-5 hours a week
What You'll Learn
Six years after the premiere of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony, composer Hector Berlioz sought to make use of the symphonic genre, but on his terms. Indeed, he wrote not only a five-movement symphony but also a narrative program to accompany and explain the symphony.
This music course introduces students to the music and programmatic elements of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, illuminating a new direction for nineteenth-century music. The course’s grand finale is a live performance of the entire symphony by the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra.
Harvard’s Thomas Forrest Kelly (Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music) guides learners through Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, highlighting Berlioz’s compositional process, his innovative orchestration, and the reception of his controversial piece of narrative instrumental music.
The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world. In this course participants will:
- Stylistic features of Romantic music, including program music
- Technical details of composition and orchestration in the 19th century
- Appreciate cultural context and performance circumstances of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
Your Instructor
Thomas is the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard University. He received his B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill, and his Ph.D. from Harvard. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary citizen of the city of Benvento, and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Artes et Lettres of the French Republic.
Ways to take this course
When you enroll in this course, you will have the option of pursuing a Verified Certificate or Auditing the Course.
A Verified Certificate costs $149 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.