Diss.--Würzbourg, 1993. / Bibliogr. p. 529-549. Index.

In this study the choral-orchestral compositions produced by Hector Berlioz are examined in detail for characteristics of musical form, textual setting, and methods of scoring for chorus and orchestra. Reasons for the preponderance of the choral-orchestral medium in Berlioz' output are examined in two introductory chapters. The initial chapter concerns Berlioz' personal experiences as an observer, conductor, and critic of choral music, while the second is devoted to Parisian customs in regard to the choral-orchestral medium during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Included in the historical chapter is a discussion of the haute-contre (high tenor or countertenor) voice preferred in French choruses of that period plus a short review of French orchestral practices, operatic choruses, the French Chapel, Parisian concert societies, and the Paris Conservatory. Especially important is the segment on revolutionary musical fetes which fostered grandiose compositions for chorus and instruments of extremely simple structure. Berlioz' sense of form was governed by his Gallic heritage and for this reason many critics have accused him of formlessness, when in fact his compositions invaribly revolve around a succinct formal plan, admirably executed. Berlioz added to the conservative French tradition which favored the strophe and the Rondeau (an unvarying refrain following disparate couplets) a decidedly learned and classical approach to music structuring; unfortunately, this unique combination of academic compositional techniques and Gallic forms has been a source of perplexity for analysts in search of traditional Germanic forms. Surprisingly, Berlioz makes frequent use of such complex compositional devices as augmentation, fugato, canon, pedal point, and even cantus firmus.

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) a effectué deux séries de concerts en Russie (en 1847 et 1867-1868, à Moscou et Saint-Pétersbourg). Le compositeur français lui-même considérait ces tournées comme les plus grands triomphes de sa carrière. Cette image d’un accueil massivement positif de Berlioz en Russie, fondée principalement sur les témoignages du compositeur lui-même, reste encore peu étudiée car les sources russes sont difficilement accessibles. La présente thèse a donc pour objectif de reconstituer l’histoire des relations entre Berlioz et la Russie, du vivant du compositeur, pour mieux comprendre les raisons de son succès. Grâce à des documents conservés dans les archives russes et jusqu’alors inédits – des articles de presse, des affiches, des dossiers administratifs, de la correspondance (dont trois nouvelles lettres de Berlioz) – nous présentons un récit plus nuancé des rapports entre Berlioz et la Russie. Ce travail est présenté sous trois angles : 1. La réception critique de Berlioz par la presse russe (environ 360 articles, publiés entre 1833 et 1869) et le rôle de cette dernière dans la formation de l’image de Berlioz ; 2. La pratique d’exécution des œuvres de Berlioz en Russie, aussi bien lors de ses visites qu’en son absence (y compris de nouveaux détails sur l’organisation de ses tournées) ; 3. Les contacts de Berlioz avec différents musiciens russes, comme M. Glinka, A. Verstovskij, V. Kologrivov, A. Lvov et M. Balakirev ; la dédicace de la Symphonie fantastique au tsar Nicolas Ier ; les arrangements par Berlioz de deux œuvres de D. Bortnânskij. Cette étude permet de mieux comprendre les relations artistiques entre la France et la Russie au XIXe siècle, mais également l’importance de Berlioz pour la culture et la musique russes. / French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) organized two series of concerts in Russia (in 1847 and 1867-1868, in both Moscow and St. Petersburg). The musician himself considered these tours as the greatest triumphs of his career. This image of a massively positive reception of Berlioz in Russia – based primarily on his own accounts – has been little studied due to the inaccessibility of Russian sources. The goal of the present thesis is therefore to reconstruct the history of the relationship between Berlioz and Russia during the composer's lifetime, in order to better understand the reasons for his success. Drawing on unpublished documents from the Russian archives – press, posters, administrative files, correspondence (including three new letters from Berlioz) – we present a more nuanced account of the relationship between Berlioz and Russia. This theme is approached from three perspectives: 1. The critical reception of Berlioz in the Russian press (about 360 articles, published between 1833 and 1869) and the role of the press in the formation of Berlioz's image; 2. The performance of Berlioz's works in Russia, both during his visits and in his absence (with new details about the organization of his concert tours); 3. Berlioz's contacts with several Russian musicians, including M. Glinka, A. Verstovskij, V. Kologrivov, A. Lvov and M. Balakirev; his dedication of the Symphonie fantastique to tsar Nicholas I; his arrangements of two works by D. Bortnanskij. This study helps to better understand artistic relations between France and Russia in the 19th century, but also Berlioz's importance for Russian culture and music.

This thesis chronicles the development of Henri Fantin-Latour’s identity as a peintre-mélomane. Its purpose is to investigate how his multi-sensory impressions of music, particularly during performances of Richard Wagner’s operas and Hector Berlioz’s musical-dramatic works, would materialize into an aesthetic of vagueness. I examine the manner in which the scenic, acoustic, and acousmatic conditions in his physical environment heightened his awareness of a poetic and palpable sense of vagueness. I postulate that he aspired to simulate the sensorial aspects of his musical experiences in his operatic interpretations, lieder-inspired images, and allegorical fantasies. Through his inventive experimentation with lithography and his adaptation of painting techniques by his favorite old masters (most notably Eugène Delacroix), he developed a distinct facture that imbued his atmospheric prints, pastels, and paintings with an ineffable quality of vagueness. The correspondence between the auditory sensation, visual perception, and formal expression of the vague is also reflected in the picturesque language and musical nomenclature invoked by the contemporary criticism. The elusive sense of the musically vague in Fantin’s imaginative genre was a conspicuous leitmotif in the Salon reviews. An intertextual comparison between the musical discourse of the time and the critical reception of his artworks reveals absolute music to be a model of emulation. In light of music’s centrality in Fantin’s artistic enterprise, the conclusion explores the extent of Berlioz’s and Wagner’s aesthetic influence on his theory and practice.

Personnage musical parfaitement identifié aujourd'hui, le chef d'orchestre apparaît au début du XIXe siècle dans le contexte d'un bouleversement du paysage symphonique (accroissement des effectifs de l'orchestre, virtuosité nouvelle des instrumentistes, œuvres à l'orchestration plus élaborée et exigeante). Issu des formes de direction multiples du XVIIIe siècle, le chef prend peu à peu son autonomie par rapport à la collectivité orchestrale, à l'instrumentiste et au compositeur. Doté d'une formation très complète, de dons particuliers, d'une autorité et d'un magnétisme hors du commun, il s'impose comme une figure centale de la musique, tandis que son métier, aux procédures de plus en plus précises, se trouve progressivement formalisé dans une littérature théorique spécifique (Fétis, Kastner, Berlioz, Deldevez). A l'instar du violoniste jouant son violon, le chef « joue de l’orchestre » (selon l'expression de Berlioz), et en cela fonde cet orchestre comme une entité réifiée. Seul entre tous après le créateur à accéder au détail et à la totalité de l'œuvre, il la façonne et la résume dans sa pantomime expressive, point de mire du regard des musiciens mais également du public, incarnation gestuelle et spatiale du sens de la musique - surtout lorsqu'elle est purement instrumentale. De ces phénomènes découle son affirmation comme figure d'un héros en musique : le chef d'orchestre, par qui l'œuvre est révélée au monde, est devenu le porte-parole voire même l'alter ego du compositeur, à la fois responsable de l'exécution dans ce qu'elle a de plus concret et dialoguant avec le sublime, dont il se fait le médiateur. Paris est l'un des creusets de ces évolutions, en particulier à travers la personnalité de François-Antoine Habeneck (1781-1849). Mieux que quiconque en France, et peut-être en Europe, Habeneck incarne le premier « chef d'orchestre » au sens moderne, exclusivement dévolu à sa tâche d'exécutant ; il forge ainsi sa propre personnalité musicale en même temps que la stature d'un nouveau type de musicien. Dans les cinq décennies qui suivent ses débuts en 1803 à la tête de l'orchestre d'élèves du Conservatoire, Habeneck devient l'un des acteurs centraux de la vie symphonique française. Il dirige l'orchestre de l'Opéra d'une main de fer, créant les partitions des maîtres du grand opéra (Auber, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Halévy), officie dans maints « concerts-monstres » (ces événements rituels qui consacrent la grandeur et la puissance du chef), et fonde en 1828 l'orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Avec cette phalange, glorieuse s'il en fut, Habeneck révèle l'œuvre de Beethoven à la France. Dans la fameuse salle de la rue Bergère, lieu d'une écoute et d'une conception changées de la musique, de nouveaux liens s'instaurent entre le chef, son orchestre, les œuvres et leur public - avec les symphonies du Maître de Bonn pour évangile et Habeneck comme grand-prêtre. / Although an identified musical figure today, the orchestral conductor appeared at the dawn of the 19th c. in the context of major upheavals in the symphonic world. A product of the 18th c.'s conducting modes, the conductor gradually acquired autonomy in relation to the orchestra, the instrumentalists and the composer. He emerged as a central figure in music-making, whilst the rules of his profession were documented in a theoretical literature. Like the violonist playing his violin, the conductor "plays the orchestra", and as such creates the orchestra as an entity. The sole person other than the composer to confront the detail and the totality of a work, he resumes it through his expressive pantomime, the focal point of musicians' and audience's gaze alike, the gestural incarnation of the music's meaning. The conductor has become the spokesman and the very "alter ego" of the composer, both responsible for the work's performance, in concrete terms, and dialoguing with the sublime. Paris is a crucible of these transformations, in particular through F.-A. Habeneck. The first in Europe, Habeneck embodies the modern "orchestral conductor", devoted exclusively to his role as performer. Following his debut at the head of the students of the Conservatoire, he directed the Opera orchestra with supreme control, officiating at any number of "concert-monstres" and foundig the "Societé des Concerts du Conservatoire". In the rue Bergère's auditorium, where the very way music was listened to and apprehended was to change, new links were established between the conductor, his orchestra, works and their audiences - with the symphonies of Beethoven for gospel and Habeneck for high priest.

This thesis presents extended program notes for a sixty-minute vocal graduate recital consisting of the following repertoire for soprano: “How Beautiful are the Feet of Them” and “He Shall Feed His Flock” from Messiah and “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo by George Frederick Handel; “La morte d’Ophélie” by Hector Berlioz; the Swedish art songs “Vingar i natten” by Ture Rangström and “Jung fru Blond och jung fru Brunette” by Wilhelm Stenhammar; the contemporary art song “Animal Passion” by Jake Heggie; and the following arias and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Mi tradi quell ‘alma ingrata” from Don Giovanni, “Bei Männern, welche liebe fuhlen” and “Papageno, Papagena” from Die Zauberflöte, “Deh vieni, non tardar o gioja bella,” “Venite inginochiatevi,” and “Via resti servita” from Le nozze di Figaro, and the Concert Aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?...non temer, amato bene,” K.505. These works encompass a variety of styles, musical periods and forms spanning over four centuries. The recital itself is documented on the accompanying compact disc, while these program notes contain discuss historical context, musical analysis, and performance practice for this repertoire.

Hector Berlioz's Messe solennelle, his first publicly performed work, was important to his establishment in Paris as a composer. Although he later destroyed the Mass, he reused parts of the Resurrexit movement in three of his later works: Benvenuto Cellini (1836), the Grand messe des morts (1837), and the Te Deum (1849). This study examines the Resurrexit and its subsequent borrowings. In each instance that Berlioz borrowed from the Resurrexit, he extracted large sections and placed them in the context of later works. Each time that borrowing occurred, Berlioz constructed the surrounding music so that portions from the Resurrexit would fit stylistically and a seamlessly into the texture. In each borrowing, he left the melody unaltered, changing harmony and orchestration instead. This pattern of borrowing demonstrates that Berlioz developed his concept of melody early in his career, and that his method of self-borrowing was consistent in each subsequent use of the Resurrexit.

Dès 1770, Shakespeare est érigé en modèle par les artistes partisans d’une rupture avec l’esthétique classique, jusqu’à devenir une figure tutélaire des romantismes européens, en littérature comme en musique. Hector Berlioz, fondateur du romantisme musical français, est un cas emblématique de ce geste romantique qui consiste à s’emparer d’une figure littéraire pour bousculer les catégories esthétiques existantes et renouveler les formes musicales. Le dramaturge anglais est une référence constante dans son œuvre, depuis sa découverte de Shakespeare en 1827 jusqu’à son dernier opéra, Béatrice et Bénédict en 1862, adapté de la comédie Much ado about nothing. Berlioz s’inspire de Shakespeare tant dans ses œuvres musicales que dans ses écrits critiques et autobiographiques, où les références à l’auteur anglais sont multiples. La relation que l’œuvre de Berlioz entretient avec celle du dramaturge pose à la fois des questions de réception et de transferts culturels, et le problème du passage d’un système sémiotique à un autre. Elle invite tout d’abord à s’interroger sur le processus d’appropriation d’une œuvre littéraire par un compositeur et ses enjeux théoriques, et à situer sa démarche dans le cadre plus vaste de la réception européenne de Shakespeare au tournant du xixe siècle. La référence au dramaturge dans l’œuvre de Berlioz intervient plus précisément dans le cadre de l’élaboration d’une esthétique du sublime, comme le montre l’étude des rapports entre texte et musique. Il apparaît alors que le « système shakespearien » nourrit les réflexions du compositeur sur les formes et les genres musicaux. / As early as 1770, Shakespeare is set up as a model by the artists who consider it necessary to break away from classical aesthetics. His name is so high that he becomes a figurehead for the various forms of European romanticisms, in literature as well as in music. As the founder of the French musical romanticism, Hector Berlioz embodies the romantic approach which consists in seizing a literary figure to discard the existing aesthetical categories and thus bring about new musical forms. Right from 1827, the year the musician discovers Shakespeare, until his last opera in 1862, Béatrice et Bénédict, adapted from the comedy Much ado about nothing, Berlioz widely draws his inspiration from the English playwright and constantly refers to him in his musical, critical and even autobiographical works. The issues raised by this close relationship are threefold : the way Shakespeare’s plays were received, the problem of cultural transfer and the shift from one semiotics to another. First of all it brings forth questions about the process which leads a composer to make a literary works his own and the theoretical aspects at stake. Also, this relationship makes it necessary to see how Berlioz’s approach fits in with the way Europe received Shakespeare at the turn of the 19th century, in so far as the reference to the playwright takes place at a time when a new aesthetics of the sublime is in progress, as shows our study of the relationship between text and music. It so appears that the “Shakespearean system” enriches the composer’s reflexions on musical forms and genres.

Paris, et plus largement la France, ont préoccupé Wagner tout au long de sa vie. Entre 1830 et 1861, il ne séjourne pas moins de sept fois en France et même lorsqu’il se trouve en Allemagne, puis exilé en Suisse, il garde toujours Paris à l’esprit. Bien que Wagner se soit toujours présenté avant tout comme un Allemand et qu’il se soit toujours défini comme un compositeur allemand, la France, sorte de miroir dans lequel il ne cesse de considérer sa patrie, lui sert de référence pour définir une nouvelle Allemagne essentiellement artistique et appelée à devenir sur ce plan le modèle de l’Europe. Cette thèse se propose d’analyser les relations de Wagner et de la France entre 1830 et 1861 sous ce nouvel éclairage et d’étudier la réception française des œuvres wagnériennes. Cette dernière repose avant tout sur un malentendu et trouve son origine non pas dans la musique ou les écrits du compositeur, mais dans les différents articles de Liszt qui paraissent à partir de 1849 / Throughout his lifetime, Richard Wagner was preoccupied by Paris, in particular, and by France, in general. Between 1830 and 1861 — the period upon which this thesis concentrates — he went to Paris on no fewer than seven occasions. Although Wagner always introduced himself as above all a German, and although he always considered himself to be a German composer, still, France—as a kind of mirror in which he never ceased to see the reflection of his homeland—always served him as a crucial point of reference as he attempted to define a new and essentially artistic Germany that was destined in this sense to become a model for all of Europe. It is in this new light, then, that I propose, in this thesis, to analyze the relations between Wagner and France and to study French reception of Wagner’s creations. That reception, based above all on a kind of misunderstanding, finds its beginnings neither in the composer’s music nor in the composer’s writings, but rather in Franz Liszt’s various articles on Wagner that began to appear in 1849

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