Literary Works

"Berlioz and His 'Harold' Symphony" (Strunk reading no.86)

• Issue: relationship of music to literature/philosophy/art/extramusical in a work
• Harold en Italie: context
  • viola is to be placed out in front of the orchestra; the harp should be near the soloist
    • visual/acoustic separation going on here
  • written for Paganini (who had recently gotten a Stradivarius viola and wanted to show off)
  • viola part is not very virtuosic; Paganini never played it
  • 4 movements: Harold in the mountains; March of the Pilgrims; Serenade; Brigands’ Orgy
  • romantic views from Italy; based on Childe Harolde’s Pilgrimage (not programmatic)
    • Akin to Lettres d’un Voyageur, Album d’un Voyageur, Mendelssohn symphonies
    • Harold in the Mountains (III.75-77) - Berlioz in Italy loved the countryside, disliked the cities
  • some odd harmonies and forms- cyclical
    • theme travels throughout whole piece (representing Harold), interrupts in places
• At the same time…
  • Wagner put out a series of treatises (including Artwork of the Future and Opera and Drama)
  • raises the issue of musical and nonmusical material; Liszt is associating himself with Wagner, Berlioz, and those who want to relate music to other elements
    • Liszt’s essay is one part of a much larger debate
  • Also: Hanslick’s Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, which took the other point of view
• Thesis: Berlioz’s work represents a reasonable, inevitable next step in the progression of music; this is the way we ought to be going
  • the RULES matter too much for those of the old school!
• Liszt’s idea of evolution/Hegelian thought – takes for granted that society is moving forward (teleological)
  • Wagner: as man is to nature, art is to man (art is the highest manifestation of humans)
  • Hanslick does not believe in teleology; there is a static perfection
• Nature: for Liszt is organic and growing, for Hanslick is permanent and perfection (physics instead of biology)
• Issue: the conflict between supporters & detractors of Berlioz’s compositions (847)
  • “The artist may pursue the beautiful outside the rules of his school without fear that, as a result of this, it will elude him.”
  • Berlioz is clearly novel: is this good or bad?
• It will be future generations that ultimately accept/reject Berlioz (and any artist) (848)
  • Like or dislike him, it is impossible to ignore Berlioz
• Art exists for its own sake; music embodies feeling (849)
  • Unlike other arts, music achieves its power without reason (see Hegel)
  • Music is the supreme art because of its effects on human emotion
  • Music is transcendental (850)
• Musical form: does embracing one style of writing mean you lose competency in all others? (851)
  • Multiple styles (absolute and program music) can coexist!
• Different musical forms can be united (harmoniously or inharmoniously of course)- “Art, like nature, weds related or contradictory forms…” (852)
  • When two forms are combined, their child exhibits new traits (e.g. Na + Cl -> NaCl)
  • Also see: Hegelianism
• “Diverse unity” in nature and art should not be limited by human means (853)
  • Art stems from nature, and thus follows the latter’s rules
  • Different forms in art are perpetually born, grow, die, and replaced by new forms
• “Man carries in his mind the concepts of eternity and nonexistence” (see Kant) (854)
  • The struggle between these yields conflict and sorrow in humans
  • This balance is also easy to see in natural laws – balance is maintained by the “finger of God” (see Newton)
    • genius is needed to move the system forward
• “One must have taken a step forward before one can recognize as such the progress one has made” (856)
  • also: “Nothing human stands still;” art moves in dissimilar cycles (857)
  • Art is the only means by which man creates (and mimics God)
• When the hour has come for a change in art, the genius appears (858)
  • This change may either be gradual (and ordinary people can follow along) or sudden (and people need to labour hard in order to understand)
    • Woe to the artist fated for the latter situation; it is a struggle indeed
    • No prizes for guessing where Berlioz falls in this scheme!
• Instrumental music must move on; Berlioz has provided one potential way (859)
• As Hegel notes, connoisseurs enjoy purely instrumental music for its forms; amateurs enjoy it by adding in symbols
  • Liszt revises it: the artist “demands emotional content in the formal container” too!
  • “Every art is the delicate blossom” borne on the “tree of science;” the roots of said tree should remain hidden!
• Man must investigate art and nature, but they’re primarily given to him for enjoyment (861)
  • Academic art is temporary; poetic art endures forever
• Instrumental music: either affects listeners by combining intellectual and sensual elements in one form, or by “liberating the soul” through transcendental means
  • Distinction between the mere musician and the tone poet
    • it is the tone poet who breathes life into his music, who develops new methods of doing things, who strives to explain his visions to the world, who transcends
• Music is not on a decline; the programmatic symphony is poised to assume the importance of the oratorio and cantata in Baroque/Classical times (863)
  • Unlike these earlier styles, which represent antique epos, the new form is more dramatic
  • Modern poetry, unlike classical, is not really conducive to the stage
    • Modern poetry: fewer characters, Nature is a more active “person,” more about “affective actions in the soul,” monologue over dialogue
  • Trends in music mirror the developments in the world of poetry
    • This however is done in the form of the instrumental programmatic symphony, rather than opera or classical symphony
• Modern times call for a particularly strong union of music with literature (868)
  • Music and literature were allied in the past (e.g. ancient Greece), so why not now?
  • A quarrel has broken out between “vocational” and “professional” musicians (869)
    • Professional = Pharisees; value the Law over the spirit, slavishly follow the old
    • Vocational = honor the old by creating something new
    • Difference between a profession (“just a job”) and a vocation (something you’ve been “called” to do, with all the presumed moral imperatives attached… i.e. a prophet) (869).
  • It is essential to study Berlioz in order to see how the new unfolds; even the conservatives rely on some of his techniques (869-70)
    • The “professionalist” criticism of Berlioz: for him form is subordinate to idea
  • The union of music and literature is gaining momentum despite the “professional” musicians and men of letters
  • p.871 - analogy of writing for musical theatre
  • Berlioz is allowing a “foreign element” into instrumental music
• Traditional symphonies were like classical sculpture, depicting ideal forms; Berlioz’s symphony is personal