Synopses & Reviews
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was equally prominent as composer and author. According to Harold Schonberg, he was the "foremost music critic of his time, possibly of all time". A Travers Chants is the collection of writings he himself selected from his thirty-odd years of musical journalism. These essays cover a wide spectrum of intellectual inquiry: Beethoven's nine symphonies and his opera, Fidelio; Wagner and the partisans of the "Music of the Future"; Berlioz's idols - Gluck, Weber, and Mozart. There is an eloquent plea to stop the constant rise in concert pitch (an issue still discussed today), a serious piece on the place of music in church, and a humorous and imaginative account of musical customs in China. But Berlioz's writings also contain biting satire and ridicule - of opera singers, of the Academy, of dilettantism. This new translation, phrased in lively, idiomatic English and annotated for the twentieth-century reader, is illustrated with lithographs and drawings from Berlioz's lifetime. Berlioz's writings are a treasure-house of information on nineteenth-century musical life, performance practice, and taste.
Synopsis
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was equally prominent as composer and music critic. A Travers Chants is the collection of writings he himself selected form his 30-odd years of music journalism. This new translation, phrased in lively, idiomatic English and annotated for the modern reader, is illustrated with lithographs and drawings from Berlioz's lifetime.
Synopsis
"Berlioz the person-composer-writer is the sensitive child of his century and a most passionate voice of his time." --The Opera Quarterly
"Berlioz could hardly have been better served than by the translator of this English edition... It is an invaluable and long-overdue addition to the Berlioz literature in English. Elisabeth Csicsery-Rónay has given us an A travers chants for the millennium." --Music and Letters
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was equally prominent as composer and music critic. A Travers Chants is the collection of writings he himself selected from his thirty-odd years of musical journalism. This new translation, phrased in lively, idiomatic English and annotated for the twentieth-century reader, is illustrated with lithographs and drawings from Berlioz's lifetime.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [232]-269) and index.
About the Author
ELIZABETH CSICSERY-RÓNAY, based in Brussels, is a translator of both French and Hungarian. Her articles and music reviews have been published in Berlioz Society Bulletin, Opera News, and Musical America.
Table of Contents
FORWARD BY Jacques Barzun
Translator's Note
Acknowledgments
The Art of Music
A Critical Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies
A Few Words about the Trios and Sonatas of Beethoven
Fidelio
Beethoven in the Rings of Saturn
The Emoluments of Singers
The Current State of the Art of Singing
Good Singers and Bad
Gluck's Orphee
Lines Written Soon After the First Performance of Orphee at the Theatre-Lyrique
The Alceste of Euripides and Those of Quinault and Calzabigi
The Revival of Gluck's Alceste at the Opera
Instruments Added by Modern Composers to the Scores of Old Masters
High and Low Sounds
Der Freischutz
Oberon Abu-Hassan; The Abduction from the Seraglio
The Method Discovered by M. Delsarte for Tuning Instruments
On Church Music
Musical Customs of China
Letter to the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institue
The Rise in Concert Pitch
The End Is Near
The Richard Wagner Concerts
Sunt Lacrymae Rerum
The Symphonies of H. Reber; Stephen Heller
Romeo and Juliet
Concerning a Ballet Based on Faust
To Be or Not to Be
Appendix: The Lapdog School
Notes
Index