Berlioz's Id?e Fixe:From Obsession to Musical Tone

[[abstract]]The “id?e fixe” in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (1830) arose from his personal experience of obsessive, unrequited love. The melody, however, had previously appeared in his earlier cantata, Herminie (1828). As well as tracing the history of the id?e fixe, this paper intends to analyze the structure, instrumentation and transformation of this melody in order to expose the musical meaning which was largely ignored by Berlioz’s contemporaries, with the exception of Schumann, and by critics thereafter. This paper examines how the “id?e fixe”came into being, both in Berlioz's life and in his works, and studies the criticism of observers after its creation.