Program Notes: Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

ABEL SELAOCOE 
Four Spirits for Cello/Voice and Orchestra 
BORN: 1992 in Sebokeng, South Africa 
WORK COMPOSED: 2023 
WORLD PREMIERE: April 13, 2023, with the Seattle Symphony 

What to Listen For:  

• Experience the soloist performing a work of his own making in the premiere of this Seattle Symphony co-commission. 

Experience the soloist performing a work of his own making in the premiere of this Seattle Symphony co-commission. 

Abel Selaocoe was born in Sebokeng, a township south of Johannesburg that was established by South Africa’s apartheid government in 1965. Selaocoe credits his older brother, Sammy, for introducing him to classical music. On weekends, they would travel 9 miles from their home to Soweto to attend classes at the African Cultural Organization of South Africa (ACOSA), where Sammy played the bassoon and Selaocoe learned the recorder. After studying the violin, flute and tuba, he was drawn to the cello for its ability to be both melodic and percussive. Having no access to an instrument during the week, Selaocoe practiced on a broomstick with a paper drawing of the cello strings that Sammy made for him. The school soon recognized Selaocoe’s potential and provided him with an instrument to take home, allowing him to devote his after-school time to practicing. 

His dedication and innate musicality won him a scholarship to South Africa’s prestigious St. John’s College. From there he was accepted to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, where he began to explore improvisation and composition. Speaking of these creative endeavors in an interview with The Guardian, he said that every day he has “a few minutes of improvisational flow where I do not stop or impose judgment. It often starts with the voice, and if I don’t like it, I just carry on until I find the flow … I love improvisation because we can always have a fresh conversation. And I love composition because it’s everywhere. It’s waiting for you to take it. It’s about being conscious of what could be.”  

Selaocoe’s debut album, Where Is Home (Hae Ke Kae), was released in 2022 and reflects his diverse influences, from traditional South African and Tanzanian music to J.S. Bach and the Italian baroque composer Giovanni Platti. In his own compositions, he often uses a form of South African overtone singing called umngqokolo, intoning in deep guttural sounds while improvising on his cello. Through his music, Selaocoe creates an environment for himself and the audience to feel empowered, nurtured and challenged. He describes his musical journey partly as a merging of his dual identities as a classical musician and African man: “I’ve had to learn to allow classical music and my culture to live in one space rather than separate them.” From this dynamic vantage point, Selaocoe brings forth music that pushes existing boundaries into a bigger world of his own making.  

Regarding his new work and Seattle co-commission, Selaocoe wrote:  

“Four Spirits is a powerful combination of direct spiritual influences from the township of Sebokeng, South Africa, beginning with understanding the conversations we can have with our ancestors through the oldest and youngest members of the family. 

“Coupling the voice and cello gives this work a sense of true storytelling with an image of a leader communicating with the community. The first movement begins with giving thanks to traditional healers for bridging a gap between the modern world and the advice of our Ancestors. 

“The second movement speaks of children as a huge inspiration for speaking an inhibited language that is full of wisdom. Constantly teaching humans about instinct and humor as an integral part of the experience. 

“The concerto focuses on universal concepts like prayer: clarifying its definition as a universal experience rather than a religious one. The constant need to have faith as we cannot control the next moment. From this comes the idea of surrender.  

  “And lastly, celebrating community and gathering as one of the most life affirming experiences. Through the use of the voice, we create an empowered and inspiring space of unity and purpose.”  

HECTOR BERLIOZ 
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 
BORN: December 11, 1803, La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, France 
DIED: March 8, 1869, Paris  
WORK COMPOSED: 1830 
WORLD PREMIERE: December 5, 1830, in Paris 

What to Listen For: 

• The innovative and groundbreaking orchestration that toppled many established norms and paved the way for a new style of music.   

The innovative and groundbreaking orchestration that toppled many established norms and paved the way for a new style of music.   

An iconic artist of the Romantic era, Hector Berlioz was full of grand ideas and dramatic self-expression. He studied medicine briefly in Paris — his father, a doctor, expected his son to follow the same path — before devoting himself to music and literature. The inspiration for Symphonie fantastique was ignited after Berlioz attended a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet by a London theater company touring Paris in 1827. He fell madly in love with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, who starred as Ophelia, and pursued her with an all-consuming passion that grew into obsession. This unrequited love fueled his creativity, and the resulting symphony tells a semi-autobiographical tale of an artist who, after driven to the brink of suicide by a failed love affair, overdoses on opium and has a series of drug-induced dreams.  

The reality of the eventual relationship between Berlioz and Smithson was far less impetuous and romantic. After the premiere of the fantastique in 1830, Berlioz left Paris for an extended stay in Rome, where he revised the work and composed a sequel, Lélio, to be presented alongside the symphony. Berlioz’s publisher invited the famed actress to this second premiere in 1832 and the pair finally met the following day. Despite language barriers and general incompatibility, they married the next year and spent a disastrous decade together before separating. Harriet grew increasingly resentful of her husband’s success and her diminishing career, which she was forced to put on hold after she broke her leg in an accident. She took to drinking and ultimately retired; while Berlioz began an affair with Marie Recio, an opera singer who became his second wife. He continued to support Harriet financially until her death in 1854.  

The young Berlioz idolized Beethoven and was especially inspired by his “Pastoral” Symphony, in which the music clearly reflects the nature scenes described in each movement. Berlioz took this idea to the next level, composing the first true programmatic symphony: a work that is tied to a storyline rather than an abstract musical form. The innovation within this new structure was astounding and at the time of its premiere in 1830, was unlike anything audiences had heard before.  

Berlioz wrote his own extensive notes to accompany the published score, stating his aim as a composer was to musically develop “various situations in the life of an artist.” In his words, the first movement depicts a young musician who “sees for the first time a woman who embodies all the charms of the ideal being of whom he has dreamed, and he falls hopelessly in love with her. Through a bizarre trick of fancy, the beloved image always appears in the mind’s eye of the artist linked to a musical thought whose character, passionate but also noble and reticent, he finds similar to the one he attributes to his beloved.” 

This musical thought that is irrevocably tied to his beloved, known as the ideé fixe, appears in different guises within each movement, never able to escape the composer’s mind. The theme is first heard as a yearning and lilting melody in the violins and flute after a slow introduction. Low strings punctuate the melody like irregular heartbeats. The music fluctuates between moments of restlessness and peace as the protagonist experiences feelings of tenderness, fury, joy and jealousy.  

The harps make a grand entrance in the second movement, setting the scene for a shimmering ballroom and a fevered dream-state waltz that builds in energy before halting at the sound of the beloved’s theme in the solo clarinets. No matter where the artist is, Berlioz writes, the “image appears before him and troubles his soul.” The orchestra then comes crashing in, whipping the dance to a raucous conclusion.  

The third movement is a pastoral reverie as the artist finds himself in the country listening to distant herdsmen exchange calls across the fields, represented by the English horn and an offstage oboe. The timpani create chords of rumbling thunder, an ominous darkness that tinges the scene with a sense of dread.  

In the fourth movement, the artist poisons himself with opium, certain that his love is unrequited. But the dose is not fatal, instead bringing on a hallucinatory state. He dreams that he has killed his love, is condemned to death and must witness his own execution. A powerful array of instrumental forces band together to create a dense and anxious scene. A clarinet plays a bit of the ideé fixe before it is quieted by the fall of the guillotine.  

The final movement follows this execution with a ghostly funeral. The music sounds possessed as the high E-flat clarinet plays the theme in a demonic jig, as if taunting the artist in his death. Berlioz quotes the medieval funeral chant Dies Irae as the orchestra gathers like a storm, hurtling toward a tumultuous ending.  

All notes by Catherine Case © 2023