Who composed Symphonie Fantastique?

• A. Verdi
• B. Berlioz
• C. Puccini
• D. Rachmaninoff

Answer: (B)

Symphonie Fantastique is a landmark programmatic work by Hector Berlioz, a French Romantic composer. This five-movement symphony tells an autobiographical tale of unrequited love, using the idee fixe as a recurring musical idea that represents the beloved. Berlioz pushes orchestration to the forefront to depict color and mood, from the dreamy ardor to the haunting witches’ Sabbath imagery, showing how music can narrate a story without words. That makes him the composer of this piece. The other names are associated with different genres or periods: Verdi and Puccini are famed for Italian opera, while Rachmaninoff was a Russian Romantic-era composer and pianist who did not write this work.