Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2006. / System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Accompanied by 4 recitals, recorded Apr. 3, 2000, Sept. 17, 2001, Oct. 13, 2003, and Oct. 24, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-89).

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.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University

This dissertation explores what it is that makes Les nuits d’été such an effective musical composition. This is done by analysing the song cycle according to Terry Eagleton’s four categories of psychoanalytical literary criticism. The death of Berlioz’s mother, with whom he had an unresolved conflict at the time of her death, is proposed as the emotional trigger that led to the composition of these songs. The content and form of the music to which he set them reveals a narrative that closely corresponds to Freud’s description of the Oedipal conflict and its successful resolution. Using the psychoanalytical theories of Lacan, Barthes, Kristeva and others, the subliminal catharsis of Berlioz’s song cycle, in the way that it is transposed to the listener through the mediation of the music, is proposed as the reason why Les nuits d’été is such an effective musical composition. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Musicology)

This dissertation explores what it is that makes Les nuits d’été such an effective musical composition. This is done by analysing the song cycle according to Terry Eagleton’s four categories of psychoanalytical literary criticism. The death of Berlioz’s mother, with whom he had an unresolved conflict at the time of her death, is proposed as the emotional trigger that led to the composition of these songs. The content and form of the music to which he set them reveals a narrative that closely corresponds to Freud’s description of the Oedipal conflict and its successful resolution. Using the psychoanalytical theories of Lacan, Barthes, Kristeva and others, the subliminal catharsis of Berlioz’s song cycle, in the way that it is transposed to the listener through the mediation of the music, is proposed as the reason why Les nuits d’été is such an effective musical composition. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Musicology)

Sowohl in der Musikgeschichte als auch in Bulgakovs Roman treten Strawinsky und Berlioz fiir immer Seite an Seite auf.

Traditional scholarship has stated that the serpent and ophicleide (as well as their successor, the tuba) were developed and added to the standard orchestra to add a bass voice to the brass, allowing a tonal compass to match a similar downward expansion in the strings and woodwinds. A closer reading of the earliest scores calling for these instruments reveals a more coloristic purpose, related to timbre as much as to compass. Indeed, the fact that composers rarely wrote for serpent and ophicleide makes two points: it proves them to be inadequate choices as a brass bass, and when they were called for, they had an expressive, often descriptive purpose. Despite his conservative musical education supervised by Carl Friedrich Zelter, the seventeen-year-old Mendelssohn, under the influence of A. B. Marx, used the Corno inglese di basso, an upright version of the serpent, in his Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream to give a more rustic flavor to Bottom's ass-braying. Even when the English bass horn functioned as a bass voice, it was playing in contexts that were descriptive, where it often demonstrated its musical inadequacy. Berlioz's descriptive writing for the serpent and ophicleide are well known. A remarkable feature which Symphonie fantastique shares with works by the other composers is the confidence Berlioz showed in the ophicleide's functional independence by occasionally giving it an arpeggiated figure while the rest of the orchestra sustains the chord. Wagner's writing for the serpent and ophicleide in Rienzi follows the less imaginative conventions of French grand opera. In Der fliegende Holländer the ophicleide, while not used as descriptively as Mendelssohn and Berlioz, nevertheless contributes significantly to Wagner's emerging focus on the inner lives of his characters and expressive commentary on the stage action. Tubists should consider the expressive implications and the unique timbre of these instruments when performing works originally written for the forerunners of the tuba.