The orchestra and its instruments . stra-tion. To appreciate the magnitude of his work, wemust forget all our modern music for a moment andremember what the Orchestra was like when Berlioz,a country boy of eighteen, arrived in Paris in 1821. Berlioz is one of the most remarkable phenomenain the history of music. In his earliest years, as in hislatest, Berlioz was himself, a solitary figure, owing prac-tically nothing to other peoples music, an artist we maysay, without ancestry and without posterity. Mozartbuilds upon Haydn and influences Beethoven; Beethovenimitates Mozart and in turn influen
The orchestra and its instruments . stra-tion. To appreciate the magnitude of his work, wemust forget all our modern music for a moment andremember what the Orchestra was like when Berlioz,a country boy of eighteen, arrived in Paris in 1821. Berlioz is one of the most remarkable phenomenain the history of music. In his earliest years, as in hislatest, Berlioz was himself, a solitary figure, owing prac-tically nothing to other peoples music, an artist we maysay, without ancestry and without posterity. Mozartbuilds upon Haydn and influences Beethoven; Beethovenimitates Mozart and in turn influences the practice of alllater symphonists; Wagner learns from Weber and givesbirth to a host of imitators. But with Berlioz — andit is a point to be insisted on — there is no one whosespeech he tried to copy in his early years and thereis no one since who speaks with his voice. How manythings in the early Beethoven were made in the fac-tory of Mozart! How many times does the earlyWagner speak with the voice of Weber! But who can. BERLIOZ By Fischer / THE ORCHESTRA 247 turn over the scores of Berliozs early works and finda single phrase that can be fathered upon any previ-ous, or contemporary, writer? There was never anyone, before his time or since, who thought and wrotejust like him; his musical style especially is absolutelyhis own. Now and then in LEnfance du Christ hesuggests Gluck — not in the turn of his phrases but inthe general atmosphere of an aria; but apart fromthis it is the rarest thing for him to remind us ofany other composer. His melody, his harmony, hisrhythm, are absolutely his own. * In nothing did the originality of Berlioz show itselfmore strikingly than in his treatment of the Orchestra. So many of his ideas and effects were used, andcarried still further, by Wagner that some of the rich-ness and beauty of tone of the modern Orchestra thatwe usually give to Wagner belongs rightfully to HectorBerlioz. For instance, Berlioz discovered the valueof pianis
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
