Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was born in Côte-Saint-André, France on December 11, 1803. As a young man he was sent to Paris to study medicine, but music occupied his interests and he soon abandoned his medical studies to enter the Paris Conservatory. Impatient with the academic restrictions imposed upon him there, he left the Conservatory to begin his career as a composer. From the very beginning he set out to open new horizons for musical expression and to extend the periphery of musical structure. His first masterwork was the Symphonie fantastique, inspired by his love for the Shakespearean actress, Harriet Smithson. It was introduced in Paris in 1830, a year in which Berlioz also won the Prix de Rome. In his later works, Berlioz became one of music’s earliest Romantics. He was a bold innovator in breaking down classical restraint; he helped extend the dramatic expressiveness of music; he was a pioneer in the writing of program music and in enriching the language of harmony, rhythm, and orchestration. Among his major works are the Requiem, Harold in Italy for viola solo and orchestra, the Roman Carnival Overture, the dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet, and The Damnation of Faust. Berlioz married Harriet Smithson in 1833. It proved to be a tempestuous affair from the outset, finally ending by mutual consent in permanent separation. From 1852 until his death Berlioz was a librarian of the Paris Conservatory. He was active throughout Europe as a conductor and was a trenchant writer on musical subjects; among his books is a volume of Memoirs. He died in Paris on March 8, 1869.
The compositions by which Berlioz is most often heard on semi-classical programs are three excerpts from The Damnation of Faust: “The Dance of the Sylphs” (“Danse des sylphes”); “The Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps” (“Menuet des feux-follets”), and “Rakóczy March” (“Marche hongroise”).
The Damnation of Faust, op. 24, described by the composer as a “dramatic legend,” took many years for realization. It was based on a French translation of Goethe’s Faust, published in 1827. A year later, Berlioz completed a musical setting of eight scenes as part of an ambitious project to prepare a huge cantata based on the Faust legend. He did not complete this project until eighteen years after that. Upon returning to it, he revised his earlier material, and wrote a considerable amount of new music. This work was first performed in oratorio style in Paris on December 6, 1846 and was a fiasco. It was given a stage presentation in Monte Carlo in 1903. Since then it has been performed both in concert version and as an opera.
“The Dance of the Sylphs” is graceful waltz music, its main melody assigned to the violins. It appears in the second part of the “legend.” Faust is lulled to sleep by sylphs who appear in his dream in a delicate dance which brings up for him the image of his beloved Marguerite. “Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps” comes in the third part of the legend. Mephisto summons the spirits and the will-of-the-wisps to encircle Marguerite’s house. The dance tune is heard in woodwind and brass. After the trio section, the minuet melody is repeated twice, the second time interrupted by chords after each phrase. The “Rakóczy March” is based on an 18th-century Hungarian melody. It is logically interpolated into the Faust legend by the expedience of having Faust wander about in Hungary. A fanfare for the brass leads to the first and main melody, a brisk march subject begun quietly in the woodwind. It gains in force until it is exultantly proclaimed by full orchestra. A countersubject is then heard in strings. After the march melody returns, it again gains in volume until it is built up into an overpowering climax.