franz liszt made programme music very popular in his symphonic poems. hector berlioz's "symphonie fantastique" describes a story he made up himself about a man who has dreams about a woman he loves. the woman he loves is represented by a tune (melody) which is heard in different ways during the symphony. it is called an "idée fixe" (french for "fixed idea"). this way of linking a theme (tune) with a person led to wagner's use of leitmotif in his operas in which a tune is linked to a person, event or idea. at the start of the 19th century richard strauss wrote several symphonic poems, often using a leitmotif to describe the person it is about. they include "don juan", "don quixote" and "ein heldenleben" ("a hero's life").