Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/594



songs. From 1839 he came into the Conservatoire circle as librarian, but was never professor.

The attention of German critics had long been arrested by the novelty of Berlioz' efforts, and his overtures had begun to be heard. So in 1842-3, when he made a grand tour through Germany as far as Berlin and Hamburg, he was a much-heralded personage. By Liszt and the Weimar circle he was specially honored, and his general reception was flattering. The result was a marked change in his standing at Paris. In 1845 he gave concerts at Marseilles, Lyons and Lille, and also made a tour to Vienna, Pesth, Prague and Breslau. In 1847 he visited Russia with success. He was mentioned as a possible associate with Girard as conductor of the Opéra. In 1852 he conducted the New Philharmonic concerts in London, from 1853 often led the Baden-Baden orchestra, and in 1866-7 made trips to Vienna and St. Petersburg. From 1851 he was several times on the juries of Expositions at Paris or London, and in 1856 became an Academician. His later compositions included the dramatic legend La damnation de Faust (1846), a Te Deum for three choirs (1849), the trilogy L'enfance du Christ (1852-4), the opéra comique Béatrice et Bénédict (1862), and the grand opera Les Troyens (two parts, 1858-63). Of his first German tour he wrote a long account (1844). His monumental work on instrumentation was issued in 1843 (later augmented). He left an autobiography (1870) of exceptional interest. Many of his letters have been published (by Bernard, 1879, and by Gounod, 1882). Among his writings were the poetic texts for L'enfance du Christ and his last two operas.

Berlioz made exhaustive studies of the technical capacities of all classes of orchestral instruments. He was able to suggest many extensions in the range of their ordinary use. He had a marvelous perception of the emotional and pictorial effects most germane to each. He was ingenious in making unheard-of combinations for special purposes. In his larger works he delighted in massing together enormous groups of a single kind (as, for example, 14 timpani in the Requiem), or combining prodigious complexes of instruments and voices (his ideal orchestra would have included over 400 players, assisted by a vast chorus and the largest organ). These sensational means were desired not merely for overwhelming effects of loudness, but for indescribable richness of tone-color even in delicate passages.

So far as direct influence went, Berlioz' ideas were most immediately effective as they were incorporated into the styles of Liszt and Wagner. In France his precepts and example became in time profoundly stimulating, but their effect was not widely felt until after his death. The modern French interest in orchestral writing, apart from the opera, developed slowly. It has always had a dramatic cast. Berlioz' influence upon it has mainly affected the technique of orchestration rather than the elements of construction. His successors have abundantly supplied the elements in which he was deficient.