Part 7 (1/2)

While I listened to this beautiful work, I could not help thinking of the great oratorios which crowned Gounod's loriously

Liszt and Gounod differed entirely in their musical teround In both there was the sa away from the old forms of oratorio, the same search for realism in the expression of the text in music, the same respect for Latin prosody, and the same belief in simplicity of style But while there is renunciation in the simplicity of Liszt, who threw aside worldly finery to wear the frock of a penitent, on the contrary Gounod appears to return to his original bent with an almost holy joy This is easily explained Liszt finished his life in a cassock, while Gounod began his in one So, despite Liszt's superior refine aside exceptional achievements, in this branch of art Gounod was the victor

As there is an _odor di felise_, well known to Catholics Gounod's oratorios are inated with this, while it is found in _Christus_ very, very feebly, if at all The _Missa Solemnis_ must be examined to find it to any extent in Liszt's work

All the necessary elenificent production of Faust and Dante The orchestra of more than one hundred musicians was perfect The period when the wind instru both in correctness and quality of sound has passed But the orchestra conductors have to be taken into account In our day these gentlemen are _virtuosi_ Their personalities are not subservient to the board on which they perfor personalities They add their own inventions to the author'sSometimes they draw out the wind instruments so that the musicians have to cut a phrase at the end to catch their breath; again they affect a mad and unrestrained rapidity which allows time neither to play nor to hear the sounds They hurry or retard the movement for no reason besides their individual caprice or because the author did not indicate theanized character that the musicians are utterly bewildered, and hesitate in their entrances on account of their inability to distinguish one atoire_ has beco _Mephistopheles_ has been riddled as by a hailstorm Familiarity with such excesses made me particularly appreciative of the excellent performance that Wolfrum, the musical director, obtained in the vast _Christus_ concert

A the conductors was Richard Strauss who cannot be passed over without a word Certainly no one will hope to find ives his temperament free rein, and rides on to victory undisturbed by the ruins he leaves behind

But he lacks neither intelligence nor elegance, and if he sooes too fast he never overe, we need not fear the desert of Sahara where others sometimes lead us Under his direction _Tasso_ displayed all its wealth of resources and the jewel-like _Mephisto-Walzer_ shone htly than ever before

I can speak but briefly of the nue nor compare such talents as those of Busoni, Friedhei theive it to Risler for his reat _Sonata in B minor_ He made the most of it in every way, in all its power and in all its delicacy When it is given in this way, it is one of the finest sonatas iinable But such a perforth of an athlete, the lightness of a bird, capriciousness, chareneral and of the style of this composer in particular are the qualifications needed to perform this work It is far too difficult forthe woers I shall only reat artist with a wonderful voice and her interpretation of several _lieder_ made them wonderfully worth while

Madame Cahier interpreted the part of Dalila at Vienna with Dalmores, so it can easily be appreciated howher

A final word about the Dante Syes to produce an effect which Berlioz accomplished in the apparition of Mephistopheles in _Faust_ with three notes This coenius and he alone could have invented it But the sudden appearance of the Devil is one thing and the depiction of hell quite another Berlioz tried such a depiction at the end of the dae vocabulary of the chorus, ”Irimiru Karabrao, Sat raik Irkimour,” and other pretty tricks, he succeeded no better than Liszt As a matter of fact the opposite was the case

CHAPTER XIII

BERLIOZ'S REQUIEM

The reading of the score of Berlioz's _Requieularly old-fashi+oned, but this is true of most of the romantic dramas, which, like the _Requiem_, show up better in actual performance

It is easy to rail at the vehemence of the Romanticists, but it is not so easy to equal the effect of _Hernani_, _Lucrece Borgia_ and the _Symphonie fantastique_ on the public For with all their faults these works had a marvellous success The truth is that their vehemence was sincere and not artificial The Ro like faith to produce lasting results

Reicha and Leuseur were, as we know, Berlioz's instructors Leuseur was the author of nuood deal of church ious works were really beautiful, but he had strange obsessions Berlioz greatly ad, especially in his earlier works, traces of this admiration

That is the reason for the syncopated and jerky passages without rhyme or reason and which can only be explained by his unconscious i a model the resemblances occur in the faults and not in the excellences, for the latter are inimitable So the excellences of the _Requiem_ are not due to Leuseur but to Berlioz He had already thrown off the traorous originality to which the value of his scores is due

In his _Memoirs_ Berlioz related the tribulations of his _Requieovernment, laid aside for a time, and, finally, performed at the Invalides on the occasion of the capture of Constantine (in Algeria) and the funeral services of General Damremont He was astonished at the lack of sympathy and even actual hostility that he encountered It would have beenelse

[Illustration: Hector Berlioz]

We_Quand on est toujours vertuex, on aireat man Beethoven's symphonies were a novelty, in Paris at least, and a scandal Haydn's symphonies inspired a critic to write, ”What a noise, what a noise!” Orchestras were merely collections of thirty or forty ine, therefore, the stupefaction and horror when a young man, just out of school, dehteen contrabasses, four flutes, four oboes, four clarinets, eight bassoons, twelve horns, and a chorus of two hundred voices as a minimum And that is not all The _Tuba Miruht trumpets and trombones, divided into four orchestras and placed at the four cardinal points of the coht pairs of drums, played by ten drummers, four tam-tams, and ten cymbals

The story of this array of dru Reicha, Berlioz's first teacher, had the original idea of playing drum taps in chords of three or four beats In order to try out this effect, he composed a choral piece, _L'Harmonie des Spheres_, which was published in connection with his _Traite d'Harenius did not suffice for this task He was a good musician, but no nificant and remained a dead letter Berlioz took this lost effect and used it in his _Tuba Mirum_

However, it must be confessed that this effect does not come up to expectations In a church or a concert hall we hear a confused and terrifying e in the depth of tone but we are unable to distinguish the pitch of the chords

I shall never forget the impression this _Tuba Mirum_ made on me when I first heard it at St Eustache under Berlioz's own direction It alect of the author's directions The beginning of the work is marked _moderato_, later, as the brass comes in, the movement is quickened and becomes _andante maestro_ Most of the tiro_, and the _andante maestro_ as a simple _moderato_ If the terrific fanfare did not beco Out for the Hunt,”

it n's entrance to his capital In order to give this fanfare its grandiose character, the author did not take easy refuge in the wailings of a minor key, but he burst into the splendors of a randeur of antesque quality and iood intentions, in trying to give us a suggestion of the last judgment by his accumulation of brass, drums, cy the giants trying to e-horn which was filled fro it a little Yet even that was an accomplishment

Berlioz spoke scornfully of Mozart's _Tuba Mirule trombone ”One trombone,” he exclaimed, ”when a hundred would be none too many!” Berlioz wanted to els Mozart with the seven notes of his one troestion is sufficient