Symphonie Fantastique Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

KowaiBaz: The container for the mystery cache Symphonie Fantastique was hidden at
N 53° 20.430 W 006° 16.192, beside a memorial to John Field (1782-1837). Field was a pianist, composer and teacher and was born on this street. He was highly regarded by his contemporaries for his playing and his compositions, having a pronounced influence on many of the Romantic composers, including Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Liszt and not least, Hector Berlioz himself. He is probably best known for originating the piano nocturne, a form later made famous by Fréderic Chopin.

It was logged as found 27 times in 779 days, equivalent to one find every 29 days. Of those geocachers that can award favourite points, 35% did so.

I have thoroughly examined the immediate area for an alternative hide location but there is none. Since the solution was relevant to the final location, I have decided to let this go.

Many thanks for all the logs and I hope it gave pleasure to those who logged it.

More
Hidden : 12/27/2012
Difficulty:
5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un Artiste, en cinq parties, Op.14 is a program symphony (think 19th century concept album) written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830.  He wrote it as a way of expressing his unrequited love for the Irish actress, Henrietta (Harriet) Smithson, who made her first stage appearance in 1814 at the Crow Street Theatre. That building is now Cecelia House and you can find it at the reference co-ordinates. 

However, the cache is not located here. To find the cache you must solve the puzzle.

It seems that Berlioz fell in love with her after attending a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet (the Odéon-Théâtre, Paris) with her in the role of Ophelia in 1827. He sent her numerous love letters, all of which went unanswered. Undeterred, he then wrote this symphony as a way to express his unrequited love. She heard the work, was suitably impressed, agreed to meet up and then they got married in 1833.

In Berlioz's own program notes he writes: "The author imagines that a young vibrant musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit which a famous writer has called the wave of 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 ... This melodic image and its model keep haunting him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe ..."

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Vs lbh pna cynl guvf va gur evtug xrl, lbh jvyy urne Abegu nf T naq Jrfg nf O.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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