During the performances of fashionable operas in an unidentified but "civilized" town in northern Europe, the musicians (with the exception of the conscientious bass drummer) tell tales, read stories, and exchange gossip to relieve the tedium of the bad music they are paid to perform. In this delightful and now classic narrative written by the brilliant composer and critic Hector Berlioz, we are privy to twenty-five highly entertaining evenings with a fascinating group of distracted performers. As we near the two-hundredth anniversary of Berlioz's birth, Jacques Barzun's pitch-perfect translation of Evenings with the Orchestra with a new foreword by Berlioz scholar Peter Bloom testifies to the enduring pleasure found in this most witty and amusing book. "[F]ull of knowledge, penetration, good sense, individual wit, stock humor, justifiable exasperation, understanding exaggeration, emotion and rhetoric of every kind" Randall Jarrell, New York Times Book Review "To succeed in [writing these tales], as Berlioz most brilliantly does, requires a combination of qualities which is very rare, the many-faceted curiosity of the dramatist with the aggressively personal vision of the lyric poet" W. H. Auden, The Griffin

Evenings with the Orchestra

BERLIOZ, Hector

University of Chicago Press

In this narrative by the brilliant composer and critic Hector Berlioz, we are privy to twenty-five highly entertaining evenings with musicians who tell tales, read stories, and exchange gossip to relieve the tedium of the mediocre music they are paid to perform. Jacques Barzun's pitch-perfect translation brings out the graceful satire of Berlioz's Evenings, while a new Foreword by Peter Bloom testifies to the enduring pleasure found in this witty and amusing book.

Evenings With the Orchestra

Arts & Photography

Music

Univ of Chicago Pr

A daring composer in his own right, Hector Berlioz made a considerable reputation and a modest living for himself writing about music. This compact volume gathers brief, pithy essays Berlioz wrote on Beethoven's nine symphonies, his opera, Fidelio, and his piano sonatas and trios. Berlioz vividly depicts the salient features of the music with observations that are acute and passionate, as valuable for musicians as for amateurs. Beyond its astute commentary on the music, however, Berlioz's book offers a rare firsthand look at the reception and reputation accorded Beethoven's music in the decades following his death. Berlioz transcribes the comments of amateurs leaving the conservatoire after a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and provides a mocking glimpse of the French appreciation of the great German composer: What stands in the way of the music of 'Fidelio' as regards the Parisian public is ... the great disdain of the composer for sonorous effects which are not justified. He addresses Beethoven's skillful use of the orchestra as an instrument of drama and the general disapprobation that greeted this approach. He also includes a satirical piece on the fad of calling up the spirit of a composer and transcribing new, posthumous compositions. Berlioz's essays testify to the tumult caused by Beethoven's music in his time and offer ways to approach the music that remain enlightening and fresh.

A Critical Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies

University of Illinois Press

"Berlioz the person-composer-writer is the sensitive child of his century and a most passionate voice of his time." ―The Opera Quarterly
"Berlioz could hardly have been better served than by the translator of this English edition... It is an invaluable and long-overdue addition to the Berlioz literature in English. Elisabeth Csicsery-Rónay has given us an A travers chants for the millennium." ―Music and Letters
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was equally prominent as composer and music critic. A Travers Chants is the collection of writings he himself selected from his thirty-odd years of musical journalism. This new translation, phrased in lively, idiomatic English and annotated for the twentieth-century reader, is illustrated with lithographs and drawings from Berlioz's lifetime.

The Art of Music and Other Essays: (A Travers Chants)

Indiana University Press

An entrancing, firsthand portrait of one of the nineteenth century's most prolific composers and men of letters. One of the foremost composers of his generation, Hector Berlioz was even more influential as an arbiter of musical taste and a writer of critical essays, published in the Parisian Journal des debats. But professional journalism was a sometimes unwelcome task for this supreme intellectual, who felt hindered by considerations of diplomacy and censorship. Letter writing, on the other hand, provided him a freer outlet for creative expression, and his surviving correspondences number over several thousand. From that extraordinary output Hugh Macdonald has gathered some 500 letters that span Berlioz's life and chart the course of his artistic career. Dipped into or read straight through, Selected Letters of Berlioz is highly entertaining and informative reading for any music lover. In the words of poet W. H. Auden, "In order to understand the nineteenth century, it is essential to understand Berlioz."

Selected Letters of Berlioz

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Conductor: The Theory of His Art

Scholarly Pr

Self-revelations of tormented great composer; musical life in Paris, Wagner and other contemporaries, musical opinions, much more. 11 plates.

Memoirs of Hector Berlioz : From 1803 to 1865, Comprising His Travels in Germany, Italy, Russia, and England

Literature & Fiction

Dover Publications

Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), considered the father of modern orchestration, possessed an intuitive musical genius all the more remarkable for his limited formal musical education. A brilliant colorist, a master of the unexpected rhythmic break, he brought a new symphonic richness to Romantic music. Both damned and venerated by his contemporaries — Mendelssohn considered him devoid of talent, Paganini declared him the one true heir to the spirit of Beethoven — Berlioz seems to have sought in music a way to soothe and give voice to the turbulent psychological instabilities and contradictions of what has come to be called "program music" — i.e., instrumental music with an extramusical significance. He strove to communicate musically the experiences, psychological themes, scenic description, and literary allusions more commonly associated with the confessional writings of Romantic poets. This Dover edition presents two of the greatest of these "program" pieces: the Symphonie Fantastique (1830) and Harold in Italy (1834). Here are the full scores of both major symphonic works — painstakingly reproduced from the authoritative Breitkopf &amp; Härtel edition, available for the first time in one convenient volume — plus Berlioz's "program" for the Symphonie Fantastique. Musicians and music lovers everywhere will value this high-quality, inexpensive edition — ideal for study and performance.

Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy in Full Score (Dover Orchestral Music Scores)

The most influential work of its kind ever written, appraising the musical qualities and potential of over 60 commonly used stringed, wind and percussion instruments. With 150 illustrative full-score musical examples from works by Berlioz, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck, Weber, Wagner, and others, and numerous smaller musical examples. Complete with Berlioz' chapters on the orchestra and on conducting. Translated by Theodore Front. Foreword by Richard Strauss. Glossary.

Treatise on Instrumentation (Dover Books On Music: Analysis)

STRAUSS, Richard

Perhaps the ideal of the nineteenth-century Romantic composer and one of the true revolutionary figures in music Hector Berlioz (1803–69) is admired today for his sense of dramatic expression, capacity for abundant melody, and mastery of orchestral color. His abilities are showcased in this volume, containing five of his most popular and widely performed overtures: The famous Roman Carnival and Corsair as well as the overtures to three operas: Benvenuto Cellini, Beatrice and Benedict, and Trojans in Carthage. All five are reproduced from the definitive Breitkopf &amp; Härtel Complete Works edition. Gathered in this inexpensive, durable volume, they invite musicians and music lovers to study and enjoy what Grove's Dictionary calls, "the novelty, richness, and striking originality of his magical orchestration."

Roman Carnival and Other Overtures in Full Score (Dover Music Scores)

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