In two previous diaries, I have started to discuss the evolution of the orchestra where we go from just a few random people playing together to this:
In our last installment, we ended up with the orchestra of the Classical period. Pretty standard stuff. In this installment, we reach the pinnacle of the orchestra and achieve its modern look. And it begins with one of the three most progressive composers in the Nineteenth Century: Hector Berlioz.
In the earlier diaries on Symphonie Fantastique we get an introduction to the music and the man that was Hector Berlioz.
Berlioz was in many ways the true "misunderstood Romantic". Or at least that's how he wrote about himself as. He didn't come to music as most other composers did. Music was discouraged in his youth, and as a result, he was not a keyboard player as most other composers were. Instead, he played guitar. Perhaps this accounts for his different views on orchestration. The piano presents to the ear one way of orchestrating, while the guitar presents a whole other.
Anyway, the following two pictures most clearly represent Berlioz during his time. The left one, during his life. The right, after his death.
Berlioz reviled by the critics during his life
Berlioz revered after his death
Although neglected in France for much of the 19th century, the music of Berlioz has often been cited as extremely influential in the development of the symphonic form, instrumentation, and the depiction in music of programmatic and literary ideas, features central to musical Romanticism. He was considered extremely progressive for his day, and he, Wagner, and Liszt have been called the "Great Trinity of Progress" of 19th century Romanticism. Richard Pohl, the German critic in Schumann's musical journal, the
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, called Berlioz "the true pathbreaker". Liszt was an enthusiastic performer and supporter, and Wagner himself, after first expressing great reservations about Berlioz, wrote to Liszt saying: "we, Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner, are three equals, but we must take care not to say so to him."
I have said Berlioz was "misunderstood". All one has to do is look at the cartoons of the day depicting him to see this. His music was criticized for it's immense orchestras and complexity. In this cartoon we see the immense orchestra and the audience recoiling from the sound.
How was he "misunderstood"? His music was more complex than had ever been heard before. His music was an almost complete breakaway from the music of the past. When you listen to Berlioz, you hear typical elements that identify the music as his: Expanded chords, shimmering trills and tremolos, sudden violent changes in dynamics and tempo, chromaticism, and unusual orchestral timbres. It was this misunderstanding that led Berlioz to conducting his own music and to writing the seminal work on orchestration still in publication today, his
Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes, shortened in English to the
Treatise on Instrumentation.
It is this work that has cemented Berlioz as one of the greatest orchestralists in history. It was published in 1844 with a chapter on conducting added in 1855. The book discusses the various technical aspects of instruments, such as chromatic range, tone quality, and limitations. An explanation of the role of particular instruments within the orchestra is also provided. The book also provides orchestral excerpts from classical scores to give examples of techniques discussed. These examples are sometimes of works by Berlioz himself, while Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven, and Gluck are also frequently cited. It includes all the instruments of the time, including "new" instruments such as the saxophone. An attempt was made at a revision in 1904 by Richard Strauss to include more modern instruments. All the major composers had copies. Certainly The Five plus Tchaikovsky had them. Mahler of course owned a copy. One was found on Moussorgsky's body when he died.
Berlioz also took up conducting because the conductors of the day weren't used to the complexities of the scores he was writing. Largely self taught, but not too proud to eschew instruction and advice, he became THE great conductor of the Nineteenth Century. Musicians and critics were awed by his ability to discern minor pitch variations in for example the clarinet section during a full tutti of the orchestra--in short, what modern conductors are expected to do.
When Berlioz died, his last words were rumored to be "Enfin, on va jouer ma musique" ("At last, they are going to play my music").
We will only discuss three works by Berlioz for the purposes of the orchestra. The first is an early work--his Roman Carnival Overture (Op. 9, 1844):
The first thing that strikes the ear are the tremolos at the very beginning. Thick and shimmery, they are like nothing else heard yet in orchestral music. Then we get the opening melody, played on Cor Anglais--English Horn. A double reed, sort of like a tenor oboe, it was rarely, if ever heard, and as a solo instrument? Fuggedaboudit. So, in the orchestration here, we have the second flute doubling on piccolo, and the second oboe doubling English horn. He adds to the brass section--4 horns, 4 trumpets, and 3 trombones. He also has, in addition to timpani, cymbals, 2 tambourines, and triangle in the percussion section. Now, with an increased wind section, you would need to increase the size of the string section. So the string section grows to the size of the modern symphony orchestra. To continue, after the English Horn solo, the full orchestra takes the strings, with the brass and percussion as accompaniment, giving it a "Turkish" sound. He takes the strings through a chromatic progression through a wind flourish into the allegro section. This being an "overture", Berlioz treats it as an operatic overture, meaning that it is a compilation of different themes, all tied together by a common bond. Note the sudden crashes and dynamic changes.
To put it more succinctly, you hear Impressionism 50 years before the Impressionists.
The next piece is Harold in Italy (Op. 16, 1848):
An entire diary can be written on this work. In fact, an entire diary HAS been written on it. It was originally written on a commission by Niccolo Paganini as a Viola Concerto. After seeing some initial sketches and expressing doubt over a lack of outward complexity, Paganini dropped the project and Berlioz turned it into a symphonic work. First, the instrumentation: Solo Viola, 2 Flutes (1 also Piccolo), 2 Oboes (1 also English Horn), 2 Clarinets, 4 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 Cornets, 3 Trombones, Ophicleïde (Look it up. Suffice it to say that tuba takes its place), Timpani, Triangle, Cymbals, 2 Tambourines (3 players), Harp, Strings. This is Berlioz at the height of his powers. We hear all the characteristics of a Berlioz work: Sudden dynamic changes and cluster chords, shimmering strings, rapid changes in mood and timbre, unusual instrument combinations. In fact, this is the piece that made him decide to do all his own conducting. Even though at the premiere, the second movement received an encore, he felt the conductor didn't understand what Berlioz was trying to do. Berlioz was correct in this feeling. For after the first time that Paganini heard it, he was so moved that he knelt in front of Berlioz to cheering fans and kissed his hand. The next day Paganini sent Berlioz a check for 20,000 Francs. However, moved as Paganini was, the fact that Paganini broke off the commission early in the writing is why this is a symphonic work instead of a concerto, with the solo viola having a more intricate part in the first movement than in the rest of the work.
Berlioz had three main literary loves in his life: Virgil, Goethe, and Shakespeare. One wonders, however, if his love for Shakespeare was influenced by the actress Harriet Smithson after seeing her in Romeo and Juliet. After seeing her he, being the Romantic he was, immediately fell for her. Well, he started stalking her, to be totally truthful. Naturally that didn't go over very well.
However, he eventually did get to meet her in the salons of Paris, after the success of Symphonie Fantastique, and they did start a relationship, and despite the gulf in language, did get married and have a son.
The love of Shakespeare continued all his life as Berlioz wrote music and operas for many of The Bard's works. Among the last things he wrote was an opera commissioned in Germany called Beatrice et Benedict (Op. 27, 1863), based on Much Ado About Nothing. We hear the Overture:
Instrumentation: piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, cornet, 3 trombones, timpani, strings. As this is an opera overture, the orchestra was naturally scaled back a bit, but all the elements of a Berlioz work I have discussed are there.
And speaking of Shakespeare, I leave you with one final gratuitous Berlioz work. The complete Romeo et Juliette (Opus 17--1847).
Instrumentation: Piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba, 2 pairs of timpani, 2 snare drums, bass drum, cymbals, crotales, 2 harps, strings, SATB choir and soloists. Read more about this remarkable work here.
So now we've come to the end of the Nineteenth Century. Romanticism and all its offshoots--Sturm und Drang, Nationalism, Transcendentalism, and others have replaced the Enlightenment Order. A new kind of sound is required, and Berlioz was the one to pioneer that sound. His techniques influenced the great orchestral composers of the day--Liszt, Wagner, Brahms. Not necessarily his composing style, but the HOW to get the sound and what the instruments could and couldn't do and HOW the orchestra works together to create the sound.
And once you knew HOW things worked, you could EXPAND them. Which is what later composers such as Mahler, Ravel, and Stravinsky certainly did.