     This symphony is in five instead of the usual four movements and each has a specific program.  The overall program for the symphony is long and descriptive; it is also quasi autobiographical.  Berlioz was in love with a Shakespearean actress who was extremely popular in Paris.  Although she refused to see him at first, she did attend a concert two years later of his "Fantastic Symphony" and was swept off her feet when she realized it was about her.  Their marriage could not live up to the fantasy and ended after a few years.  The program for this symphony depicts his yearning for her love and his depression from her lack of response.  Because of his despair, he attempts suicide with opium.  Rather than dying, he falls into a heavy sleep and dreams.  

     His love appears in the dreams as a recurring musical motif called ide fixe or "fixed idea."  The fixed idea unifies the five movements by its reappearance. The theme is altered each time it appears taking on dramatically different personalities.  In the second movement, the fixed idea is an elaborate waltz theme; in the fourth movement it is played by a solo clarinet which is shockingly interrupted.  The technique of developing and changing the same theme throughout several movements, called thematic transformation, was becoming more prevalent following its use by Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony .  

The titles of the five movements are 
1.  "Reveries, Passions"  
2.  "A Ball"  
3.  "Scene in the Country"  
4.  "March to the Scaffold"  and  
5.  "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath."

     The fourth movement, "The March to the Scaffold," is a story of the dreamer as he walks to his execution for murdering his beloved.  The fixed idea at the end of the movement is abruptly cut off before it is completed by a loud orchestral chord representing the fall of the guillotine's blade.  This movement unleashes some of the most striking orchestrations in the symphony.  Notice the enlarged brass and percussion sections.
