Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French composer and conductor.
[For last year's suite of verses on Elliott Carter click here.]
Lenny in the Sky with Diamonds
Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature.... According to Bernstein, "Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral." -- Wikipedia
The great Leonard Bernstein, the wannabe hippie,
Conducted a work that was druggy and trippy.
What was the opus that earned this critique?
Why, only our friend Symphonie fantastique!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Symphonie fantastique: Idée fixe
He hears a motive at a dance,
And then again in rural France.
And next, no doubt he’s rather baffled
To hear it as he mounts the scaffold.
And then he’s dead (or in a trance)
And hears the tune amid the chants
That witches sing on Sabbath nights
As part of dark unholy rites.
Envoi
If he had pondered in advance
The upshot of this circumstance,
Perhaps he would have skipped the dance.
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