Berlioz-Vs-Vergil-Music-Thesis
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Vergil's Influence on Berlioz's Les Troyens Modern Life in Ancient Times as Portrayed through Music Amanda S. Clark A thesis written in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelors of Arts of Music in the Department of Music of the University of Mary Washington Advised by: Dr. Mark Snyder and Dr. Theresa Steward April 15, 2017 Clark 1 Introduction Louis-Hector Berlioz and Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil) are two of the most influential writers of their time. Berlioz and Vergil have many similarities, both in life and in compositions. Vergil’s influence on Berlioz’s works is strongly comparable between Berlioz's Les Troyens and Vergil's Aeneid, in which Les Troyens is directly influenced in structure, language, and rhythm. Berlioz is a well-known French composer, critic, and conductor from the 1800s, known as the Romantic era. He composed a wide variety of music, and he is known greatly for Symphonie Fantastique, Roméo et Juliette, and La Damnation de Faust.1 Les Troyens is one of his most famous operatic works. In contrast, Vergil was a well-known poet between 70-19 BCE, known as the Augustan era. He is mainly recognized for his Bucolics and his Eclogues. His Aeneid is his most notable work. Vergil wrote the Aeneid during a period of major political and social change in Rome, when the Republic had fallen and Augustus had established an Empire that he eventually went on to rule. Both Berlioz's and Vergil's writing styles are similar for their most famous works because both works were constructed little by little and out of order. About the Works and Similarities in Life Les Troyens is Berlioz's third dramatic work and one of his last compositions. Because of being pressed for finances, both the music and the libretto for Les Troyens were written in a little less than two years, from May 1856 to April 1858.2 While he was writing the composition, “music was pouring out of him for several scenes at one time, out of sequence, while he steadily furbished up the lines, withdrawing foolish concessions to current taste and nourishing himself on Vergil…”3 The opera consists of five acts, and it is based off of books Clark 2 I, II, and IV of Vergil's Aeneid.4 Because Les Troyens ends after Dido's suicide, it would be unnecessary to compare Berlioz's work to any books past Book IV of the Aeneid. The Aeneid is Vergil's famous epic and his last work. Vergil worked on the Aeneid for eleven years, but it was not finished completely at the time of his death. Vergil “first drafted [the Aeneid] in prose and divided it into twelve books, deciding to construct it bit by bit, so that he could do each part as it seized his fancy, taking up nothing in order. Lest anything should impede his momentum, he would let certain things pass unfinished; others he propped up, as it were, with lightweight verses, joking that they were placed there as struts, to hold up the edifice until the solid columns arrived.”5 After Berlioz finished the opera, he attempted to have it performed. However, it was rejected by the Opéra in 1862. Because of the rejection of Berlioz's Les Troyens and the fear that no one would ever hear it, Berlioz decided to divide Les Troyens into two parts and make a piano reduction of the score. After the rejection from the Opéra and the dividing of Les Troyens, the opera, in its entirely, was not performed until 30 years after Berlioz’s death. By dividing the opera into two parts, the structure becomes similar to the Aeneid, where it is made up of two separate but interlocking parts. The Aeneid itself is based upon Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. In fact, the first line of the Aeneid refers to both epics; Arma virumque cano.../ I sing of arms and of a man...6 Because Berlioz's Les Troyens’ structure is based off of the Aeneid, Acts I and II of the opera comprise “La prise de Troie,” and Acts III, IV, and V make up “Les Troyens à Carthage.”7 Only “Les Troyens à Carthage” was performed in the Théâtre Lyrique, a smaller opera theater in Paris, France.8 The Aeneid was never finished, and it is uncertain whether there was editing done to it Clark 3 after Vergil's death or not. Before Vergil died, he demanded that the poem be burned because he was not satisfied with it, but now the Aeneid is used all over the world as a literary staple. The Aeneid was kept alive once it was published because it gave readers the history of literature and political history. Politically, it gave both praise and a critique of the new emperor in a discrete manner. The Aeneid provides literature history because it pays respect to and challenges classical Greek literature and mythology by putting a Roman-like finish on the classics. Vergil was never able to see the great impact of his epic. Likewise, Berlioz was never able to see the first whole performance of Les Troyens and was never able to see the impact that it had on the audience. Berlioz, as a composer, faced similar challenges as Vergil, a poet. They both had to adapt their text to either music or meter in a way that was pleasing and appealing to their audience. Berlioz's Les Troyens is not just a literary translation of the Aeneid; it is a musical translation. In Les Troyens, parts of the texts from Acts I, II, IV, and V are directly taken from the Aeneid. Not only are the words affected, but parts of the music mimic dactylic hexameter. Dactylic hexameter is the rhythmic scheme that is traditionally used in classical epic poetry, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the Aeneid. The meter consists of lines made up of six poetic feet. Each dactylic foot is made up by one long vowel and two short vowels, | – U U |. However, vowels can be long by nature or by position, and this can result in a spondaic foot, where the two short vowels are replaced by one long vowel, | – – |. Four of the six feet behave in this manner. The fifth foot is usually dactylic, but rarely, it can be found to be spondaic. The sixth foot is different. The last vowel in the line can either be long or short. This vowel is called an anceps. If the vowel is long, the last foot would be spondaic, but if the last vowel is short, it is called a trochee because there is only one short vowel instead of two, like there is in a dactyl. Clark 4 Unusual Roles of Women The Aeneid is an unusual poem for classical antiquity because of the way the female characters are presented the epic. Vergil portrays females in a way that seems to challenge traditional gender roles in Roman society because characters are both foreign and female. Most of the Roman literature was based on men and politics. Females were viewed as housewives, not leaders. Berlioz follows this example by using female characters to dominate the two halves of the opera: Cassandra dominates “La prise de Troie,” and Dido dominates “Les Troyens à Carthage.” “[Aeneas] links the two parts, but the second heroine remains after Aeneas’ flight, concluding the epic in an individual tragedy that matches the collective tragedy of Troy’s downfall.”9 The character of Dido presents a challenge to the normal gender roles because of her scheming nature and her attempts to control a marriage that did not follow the usual Roman traditions. Berlioz depicts the scene in the Aeneid, where the manipulation takes place, in a musical interlude at the end of Act III. Juno, queen of the gods, has a grudge against Aeneas, and she sees Dido’s love as a way to keep Aeneas from finding new land for Troy. Juno sets up a storm for the two leaders to be driven to a cave, where the marriage takes place. Even though the marriage was not carried out following the usual traditions, Dido still views it as a conventional marriage and tries to keep Aeneas from leaving. If Aeneas would not leave, her army would grow stronger with his men, and she would be able to have Aeneas forever in matrimony. Les Troyens and Aeneid Act I of Les Troyens is based upon lines 13-249 of Book II in the Aeneid. In this scene, the Trojans believe that the Greeks left after leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Clark 5 Troy as a gift offering to Pallas Athena. Laocoön, the Trojan priest, was skeptical and hurled a spear at the horse. Then, two serpents came out of the sea and wrapped around Laocoön’s two sons, and when Laocoön tried to save them, the serpents killed him too. The Trojans thought of this as Athena’s punishment for harming the wooden horse. Despite the warnings of Laocoön, the Trojans brought the horse into the city. Even though this scene is in both works, it is written differently between Berlioz and Vergil. Vergil wrote this scene as a recall from Aeneas’ experiences and has Aeneas tell it as a storyteller to Dido. Berlioz, however, uses Aeneas and Cassandra to tell the story to the audience. Berlioz also uses this scene as an opportunity to tell and to remind the audience of Cassandra’s curse by having her tell her lover, Corebus, that the wooden horse was a trick, and he did not believe her.