Judge Dennis Davis
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, The First Psychedelic Symphony
Summary
Judge Dennis Davis discusses Symphonie Fantastique, composed by Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia both because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature, and because history suggests Berlioz composed at least a portion of it under the influence of opium. Berlioz put a great deal of feeling into the piece, exploring the extremities of the emotional spectrum.
Judge Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis is a judge of the High Court of South Africa and judge president of the Competition Appeals Court of South Africa. He has held professorial appointments at the University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand, as well as numerous visiting appointments at Cambridge, Harvard, New York University, and others. He has authored eleven books, including Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa.