Assignment 2 stuff

Atm I'm deciding which version of the accompanying notes I should use ( 1845 or 1855 version) as they both differ slightly. However I don't think it will matter too much.

I've also been trying to decide exactly which story archetype Symphonie Fantastique fits into. I think it's basic archetype is that of a tragedy. However I think that it could be interpreted into a few different archetypes ( romance and maybe even satire/irony?). But yes. More thought needs to be put into this... It's got a bit of a 'voyage and return' (without the return (but I could always add one?)) feel to it. Anyway...
ONWARD!


I decided to see if I could fit the story into the Basic tragedy meta-plot for the 1845 version:

The Symphony's 5 movements almost perfectly fit with the meta plot with each of the 5 movements fitting with the 5 stages in the meta-plot.

1. Anticipation stage - Movement 1 : Meeting the woman and falling in love. The idee fixe.

2. Dream stage - Movement 2: Going to the ball and seeing the woman again

3. Frustration stage - Movement 3: Becomes lonely, and suspects that the woman has betrayed him.

4. Nightmare stage - Movement 4: OD's on opium in his despair, dreams that he has killed his beloved and is witnessing himself being marched to the scaffold for his execution

5.Destruction or death wish stage - Movement 5: Attends his own funeral at a witches sabbath surrounded by monsters and sorcerers. His beloved appears and joins in the celebrations of his death.


Plot types:
Symphonie Fantastique could fit with 'tragic flaw'(being that he's a drug addict), 'trap or maze'(while in drug induced state), 'vision of hell'(last 2 movements) and even possibly 'death of an innocent'(death of his beloved).

----Moar?-----


1. The work - author, date + some background. What IS this work? What is the ESSENTIAL theme of the work? HOW is this theme presented.

The Symphonie Fantastique is a classical symphony and was written/ composed in 1830 by Hector Berlioz. However it was not published until 1845. It is the work with which Berlioz’s name is most closely associated. The composition of this revolutionary masterpiece marked a breakthrough in the composer’s career and the starting point of his mature work as a symphonic composer.
I think that the main theme of the work is romance/ tragedy with a bit of horror thrown in there. the theme of the work is represented not only through the program notes, but also through the use of the instrumentation and the intensity of the music which helps to create the mood/ tension etc.

And the winner is.......

So after much deliberation, I finally decided to do 'Symphonie Fantastique' by Hector Berlioz.
There is a basic story behind the symphony. Basically, it's about a young artist gifted with a vivid imagination but also has an opium addiction.

Besides the interesting story, I also decided to choose this piece as it stood out form all the other pieces being composed at the time. This symphony was a first of its kind in every way. The idea of a programmatic symphony had previously only briefly been touched upon by Beethoven. In this work, Berlioz gave us a tale that involved romance, a ball, a suicide, a guillotine, and a Witch's Sabbath! Each of these events were imaginatively depicted by musical ideas of their own kind. Eg, the March to the Scaffold movement is ended by having plucked strings representing the bouncing of a chopped head!

Instead of typing up the story myself, I'm just going to be lazy and paste the program notes up here.

The symphony is in 5 parts:

1. Rêveries - Passions (Daydreams - Passions)
2. Un bal (A ball)
3. Scène aux champs (Scene in the country)
4. Marche au supplice (March to the scaffold)
5. Songe d'une nuit de sabbat (Dream of a witches' Sabbath)

Part one
Daydreams, passions

The author imagines that a young musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit which a famous writer has called the vagueness of passions (le vague des passions), sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperately in love with her. By a strange anomaly, the beloved image never presents itself to the artist’s mind without being associated with a musical idea, in which he recognises a certain quality of passion, but endowed with the nobility and shyness which he credits to the object of his love.

This melodic image and its model keep haunting him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe. This explains the constant recurrence in all the movements of the symphony of the melody which launches the first allegro. The transitions from this state of dreamy melancholy, interrupted by occasional upsurges of aimless joy, to delirious passion, with its outbursts of fury and jealousy, its returns of tenderness, its tears, its religious consolations – all this forms the subject of the first movement.

Part two
A ball

The artist finds himself in the most diverse situations in life, in the tumult of a festive party, in the peaceful contemplation of the beautiful sights of nature, yet everywhere, whether in town or in the countryside, the beloved image keeps haunting him and throws his spirit into confusion.

Part three
Scene in the countryside

One evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds in the distance dialoguing with their ‘ranz des vaches’; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier colouring. He broods on his loneliness, and hopes that soon he will no longer be on his own… But what if she betrayed him!… This mingled hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by dark premonitions, form the subject of the adagio. At the end one of the shepherds resumes his ‘ranz des vaches’; the other one no longer answers. Distant sound of thunder… solitude… silence…

Part four
March to the scaffold

Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow.

Part five
Dream of a witches’ sabbath

He sees himself at a witches’ sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae,** the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies irae.

**A hymn sung in funeral ceremonies in the Catholic Church.

Here's the link: http://www.hberlioz.com/Scores/fantas.htm

Assignment 2 Ideas!!!

So this stuff is all a bit late to go up, But better late then never right?

For the 2nd assignment (choose something that has never been turned into a game before) I decided to do a piece of music. And this is the short list:

Peer Gynt - Grieg
Night on Bald Mountain - Mussorgsky
Pictures at a Exhibition - Mussorgsky
Petrouchka/ Petrushka - Stravinsky
Rite of Spring - Stravinsky
The Fire Bird - Stravinsky
The Planets - Holst
Symphonie Fantastique - Berlioz
Ride of the Valkyries (Die Walkure) - Wagner

A few of them already have stories behind them while others are based on an idea or theme. They're all really awesome compositions so know I just have to choose which one I want to do which is going to be reaallly hard seeing as I like them all.

Super late Story making shennanigans!

This is the story Anya and I came up with in the story for a game tutorial! Instead of doing it individually, we decided to combine our words to make a super mega awesome story!

The words I received were:
Homer the homosexual
the character is an inferior clone
greasy fast food restaurant
monkey invasion!
Helvetica the Pure and stealing legs

the words Anya received were:
Reginald the pedophile duck
afraid of running water
New York City
Your friend finds out
the hunter
This game is about self discovery

AND THIS IS OUR STORY!!!

Reginald the Duck, who is a pedophile, is running through the countryside of New York, hunted by monkeys in order to be exterminated like his 6 million kin. He finally, after days of intense struggle with no food or water, arrives in New York City.

Homer the Homosexual is at a conference about genetics. The conference is in a lab owned by his older brother from whom he was cloned. Homer admires his brother, and wants to continue his lifelong work of finding a cure for homosexuality. This is because Homer is homosexual which he is ashamed of as his older brother is not. It has been found that there could be a connection between thighs and sexual orientation. In order to support this research, Homer owns a fast food restaurant.

Reginald the duck, smelling the sweet, sultry scent of fried chicken, walks into the fast food restaurant. Reginald explains his story to Homer and tells him of how the monkeys invaded his homeland because of their strong dislike for ducks, gypsies and homosexuals.

Meanwhile, The Hunter, leader of monkeys, is planning an assault on New York City to eradicate the last duck.

Back to Homer and Reginald:
Homer explains his story to Reginald. At this moment, Helvetica the Pure Leg Dealer enters and upon hearing their story, offers to help Homer get new legs.

Reginald explains that he is plagued by the desire of young children. He wishes to also assist Homer in his quest and to also gain new legs for himself. The two embark on a quest to to New Jersey. After they have departed, The Hunter arrives in New York and screams in anger upon realising that the Duck had left hours ago. the Hunter confronts Helvetica, the last person to talk to them. Helvetica refuses to talk and the Hunter strikes her across the face. The Hunter instructs the monkeys to take her away.

Meanwhile, Homer and Reginald engage in a montage to the song of 'Walking on Sunshine'.

The monkeys have taken over New York City and The Hunter has made everyone adhere to his strict fascist regime.

Reginald and Homer have become close friends after fighting a dragon; in order to flee from the dragon, Homer jumps into the water. "But I'm afraid of water!" cries Reginald.
"Please Reginald! I can't let you die!" exclaims Homer.
Reginald is badly burned by the dragon because of his avoiding the water.
The dragon then gets bored and leaves. Homer and Reginald can see the Mystical Legs sitting atop a mountain before them. They are almost at the mountain when they receive news about the state of New York. They have to choose between the legs for themselves or New york and Helvetica. They decide to go back and save Helvetica.

The Hunter grabs Helvetica around the neck and puts a knife to her throat. Also, they are on the other side of a river. Reginald must face his fear, he cant fly (like most ducks can)and he swim across in orderto help homer defeat the Hunter and the Monkeys in an epic battle that lasts for a significantly long amount of time.

Helvetica is so happy that she offers Homer and Reginald special legs for transplants. Reginald gets homosexual legs and and Reginald gets duck loving legs. The two fall in love and live happily ever after.

Somewhere in there, Homer finds out his older brother was gay all along.


~~~~THE END~~~~

In reflection, I think that I would have learned more from this exercise if people had taken it a little bit more seriously when coming up with words to write on the post-its. While things like 'Monkey invasion' and 'stealing legs' are cool. Putting in characters like 'Reginald the pedophile duck' are a bit unnecessary. I mean whats wrong with just 'Reginald the duck'?. There's just some lines you don't cross y'know?

In conclusion if you're a police officer. Pleas don't arrest me for writing this story k?