Berlioz in England. A Centenary Retrospect Author(s): F. G. E. Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 44, No. 725 (Jul. 1, 1903), pp. 441-449 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/903852 Accessed: 15-12-2015 20:31 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:31:01 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES.-JULY I, 19o3 441 'Symphonie Fantastique' and the' Ouverture THE MUSICAL TIMES des Francs Juges,' two works which, as Mr. Dannreuther has well said, 'are more than AND SINGING-CLASS CIRCULAR. sufficient to show that he was already the master of his masters, Cherubini of course 1903. excepted.' JULY I, Moreover, he was repeatedly plucked in the examinations for prizes in composition! But in I828 he took the second, and finally (in 1830) the BERLIOZ IN ENGLAND. first prize-the ' Prix de Rome,' the blue-ribbon A CENTENARY RETROSPECT. of the famous French music-school. At the end One hundred have come and since of his three years' sojourn in Rome, Berlioz years gone returned to Paris it difficult to Louis Hector Berlioz (his first name is where, finding omitted in all the made obtain a means of existence by composition, he nearly dictionaries) took to articles in the and his entry into the world. He was born at writing newspapers La C6te a small town near gave occasional concerts. His contributions to Saint-Andr6, the des Debats afforded full for the Grenoble, France, on December 11, Journal scope Berlioz a wished1803. his exercise of his remarkable literary gifts, and he pire, country doctor, had the additional in the son to follow the medical profession, but all to advantage-not always no At the of Hector was purpose. age eighteen, :? sent to Paris as a medical student, but the ~ ghastly experiences of the dissecting-room so 111~1:: repelled the imaginative young man that he F forsook the healing art for that of music. He c~ entered the Conservatoire de and Musique tO#~El~i( studied under Lesueur for composition. (The only instrument Berlioz could play was the Rria?rl guitar !) His parents entirely disapproved of this change of vocation on the part of their son. A violent quarrel with the 'old people' -: at home resulted in a stoppage of supplies, which the wilful man to earn compelled young :::- a scanty livelihood by singing in the chorus of an obscure Parisian theatre. A Bohemian side- :;:-: light on those early days is furnished in the -?a; Musical World of December 15, 1837. The extract is specially interesting as being one of the ~s~ F~:::::::::1P~I~: ;, :::::~: ':~-l:-ili:i:,::-~i:'; earliest references to Berlioz in an English musical journal. It forms part of an article 2; I--;?-$":-~ entitled ' Music in Paris in 1837 (Ella's Musical Sketches, does not MS.).' Ella, by-the-way, Cabman: Cab, sir? give the name of his informant:- Old Gentleman: My friend, I can see that you are speaking, but I cannot hear a word I have come The early history of Berlioz is romantic and may you say. just not be void of interest to the reader. He was first from a concert given by Monsieur Berlioz. known to my informant as a chorister in a minor (From Charivari.) theatre; his reserved manners made him unsocial equipment of musical critics-of possessing a and unpopular with his comrades; by the musicians technical of the which of the band he was remarked as eccentric in appear- knowledge subject upon ance, always proficient in his duties, and yet anxious he wrote. to elude particular notice. My informant from As a composer and as a man Berlioz was not motives of curiosity sought the acquaintance of this popular in Paris, nor indeed in France. No recluse, and one day adjourned to a neighbouring man was more abused or and his estaminet to discuss divers matters on music and sip caricatured, the beverage of a 'Demie tasse.' The humble compositions were regarded as the outcome of a chorister produced from his pocket a bundle of MS. more or less disordered brain. He endeavoured scores of descriptive overtures and dramatic scenes, to obtain a Professorship at the Conservatoire, and amidst the fumes of tobacco, the rattle of but in vain; the with which his billiards and dominoes, endeavoured by singing the only posts motivi of the various movements to interest his distinguished name and his Alma Mater are companion. When he arrived at a particular officially associated were the appointments of the sedate and passage, sullen chorister, having Conservateur (1839-I850) and Librarian (1852- waxed warm and earnest in his gesticulations, His are too well known- exclaimed 'IVoilA! le climax! ' and down went his 1869). compositions fist, smashing all the crockery upon the table. and we may add appreciated-to need further reference, and his writings-which include the So hot-headed and unconventional a pupil as 'Treatise on Instrumentation,' a branch of the Berlioz was regarded with little favour by the art in which he was so consummate a master- powers-that-be at the Conservatoire, in fact possess quite a literary charm. After a Cherubini, the director, positively hated him. strenuous existence of sixty-five years, Hector During his studentship he composed the Berlioz died at Paris, March 8, 1869. This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:31:01 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Musical Times.] (From a lithograph by Baugnier during the visit of Berlioz to London in 1851. 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'"8 i ~1 ~B~-PI i.; ?.f?-' i .F' ia~ .~r II?"~~,r/ i:ri 4~1 -I-I i-'' S;:-:- -------::--:: i-Fi : F- - ~~;'4 This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:31:01 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL 442 TIMES.-JULY I, 1903. Much of an In Memoriamn nature will be received with hardly less enthusiasm than his written about Berlioz during the remaining German contemporary Mendelssohn. months of this centenary year. Not a little of By his marriage with Miss Harriet Smithson this will recapitulate what is well known con- (18oo00-1854), the distinguished Irish actress in cerning him biographically, and there will be Shakespearean parts, Berlioz became closely put forward a certain amount of impressionist connected with these isles. The marriage criticism that is of doubtful value. Therefore took place at the British Embassy, Paris, we venture to strike out a new path, one that on October 3, 1833, one of the signatories should have special interest for English readers, to the register being Franz Liszt, as will be in giving some information concerning the seen from the subjoined official copy of the visits of the eminent French composer to marriage certificate, specially procured for the the land of 'Rule, Britannia,' where he was purpose of this article. (Page 120.) Marriages solemnized in the House of His Britannic Majesty's Embassy at the Court of France in the year 1833. Mr. LOUIS HECTOR BERLIOZ of the Town of C6te Saint Andre in the Department of Isere France-Bachelor, and HARRIET CONSTANCE SMITHSON of the Parish of Ennis in the County of Clare Ireland-Spinster, were married in this House by Licence this third day of October in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three By me M. H. LUSCOMBE, Chaplain. L.H. H. BERLIOZ This marriage was solemnized between us C SMITHSON In the presence of BERTHESTRITCH JACQUESHENNER ROBERTCOOPER F. LISZT No. 359. 3 A. P. Inglis Esqre His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General at Paris do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and faithful Copy of an Entry in the Register Book of Embassy Marriages kept at the British Consulate at Paris in France. Witness my Hand and Seal, this seventeenth day of June 1903. A. P. INGLIS (Stamp) g Consul-General Paris. Pa ris The Court Journal of October 12 rather cruelly There is considerable risk attending any refers to the ill-fated union in these words:- statement as to the first performance of a Berlioz in But the Societa Miss Smithson was marriedlast week, in Paris, to composition England.