Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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ON INSTRUMENTATION
BY EDWARD LOCKSPEISER
us.
Strauss had written his principal symphonic poems and was engaged
1 In the 'History of Orchestration' (1925) Adam Carse lists the works on orchestration
the moment they are written". Richard Strauss in his foreword to the Berlioz 'Treatise' is
similarly cautious: "In the art of instrumentation the question of theoretical books is
highly problematic".
German, by J. C. Griinbaum and Alfred Dorffel. Minor additions and corrections were
separately in French under the title 'Richard Strauss, Le Trait6 d'Orchestration d'Hector
pp. 92 (Leipzig, 1909). Strauss's edition was translated into English by Theodore Front
under the title 'Treatise on Instrumentation by Hector Berlioz, enlarged and revised by
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the rise of the Romantic orchestra. This was a parallel but not an
of Haydn and Mozart ("one might almost call them string quartets
works of Wagner.
Strauss suggests, "he was not dramatic enough for the stage and not
"he was the first to derive his inspiration from the character of
and concert hall "he discovered new and splendid resources for the
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destined him for the stage and that ultimately triumphed in 'Les
feeling at all for polyphony"-he was referring to the fact that Bach
multi-coloured treatment.
the scene of the oracle in Act I of 'Alceste'.' Played near the bridge,
tremolo", which had fallen out of use even during his lifetime, and
3 In the 'Treatise' Berlioz had written a paragraph on organ fugues, which normally
of the entire system"; also that they presented an "appearance of disorder" and that they
a dance of demons". To this Strauss replies: "Although I share Berlioz's opinion regarding
organ fugues, this whole paragraph seems to me to be inspired by his purely personal
hatred of the polyphonic style in general-a hatred not generally shared even by the
admirers of Berlioz's genius. In this respect the German and the Latin are antipodes".
4 Strauss was surely aware of the long drawn-out conflict between Berlioz and
Wagner, and of Berlioz's opinion of the prelude to 'Tristan', in which he perceived "no
other theme than a sort of chromatic moan, full of dissonant chords, of which the long
appoggiaturas that replace the real note only increase the cruelty" ('A travers chants',
i862).
modem music will teach the student how to score-classical music will prove of negative
value to him. It is useless for a Berlioz or a Gevaert to quote examples from the works of
Gluck. The musical idiom is too old-fashioned and strange to modern ears; such examples
are of no further use today. The same may be said of Mozart and of Haydn". In search of
historical authenticity we nowadays reverse this judgment; we wish to revive the impact of
6 Only a personal choice of orchestral devices is made by Berlioz, and this also
'Thesaurus' Gardner Read writes: "If every example of the use of the bow tremolo in the
strings had been given, there would literally have been room for nothing else in the book".
mentioned in the text can easily be identified by reference to the excellent index in this
edition.
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of the rain and hail by the wind" at the beginning of the opera
(the famous D octave on violins and violas); and "the rustling of the
Gluck's 'Alceste' (Act II, 'Chi mi parla') and the sudden transition
from muted to bright tones in the 'Queen Mab' scherzo are Berlioz's
Berlioz, and it is again Gluck who was his model for the use of the
'Iphigenie en Tauride' (when Orestes falls asleep with the words 'Le
Berlioz was inspired by the low sustained notes on the flute (which
8 "To the viola, the Cinderella of the String Orchestra, Gluck was the fairy
godmother who rescued the instrument from a mean position and made it not only
independent and indispensable, but discovered in it an individuality which was quite its
own, a peculiarity of tone-colour with which no other member of the string family was
9 "Modern masters generally keep the flutes too persistently in the higher ranges",
Berlioz comments. "The flutes predominate in the ensemble instead of blending with it".
"Very true indeed!", adds Strauss, writing before 'Daphnis et Chlo6' and 'Le Sacre du
printemps'.
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romantically described), and by its use in the first and second acts
of divided strings (violins, violins and violas, violas and cellos) led
C'est celui de tous les instruments a vent, qui peut le mieux faire
Weber!
Strauss goes only part of the way with Berlioz in his evocation of
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3*
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Belgian musical worlds in the decade before the first World War.
regarded the 'Treatise' as their bible, would have been much larger.
Nor are there illustrations, Closson notes, from the "young French
the opening section of 'Fetes' are certainly the works where the two
texture. One sees here the same swift and elusive figurations; the
same vivacity and airiness; and the same concern with the timbres of
'Fetes'. I think it is right to say that in both cases the models for this
'Spirits of Air and Earth and Sea' (Act II).18 It is certain that
tion", and he also held that Weber had hardly been surpassed in
10 This cavatina, not quoted in the revision, opens with a largo recitative for
recalls the following conversation: "Rolland: 'It's an opera with genius in it'. Strauss:
'I don't know a Russian opera that has genius'. Rolland: 'There's this one'. 'Ah!' says he.
'But he'll never look at it"' ('Richard Strauss and Romain Rolland: Correspondence',
I968).
14 See Robert Godet, 'Weber and Debussy', The Chesterian, June I926.
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Closson, but not, apart from the works of Strauss himself, the
the minuet "is the 'Ball' movement removed to another setting and
are recalled in the heroic march and the funeral chorale of the
the Berlioz work, a flute warbling about in the middle of the finale.
Oddly, he does not note that in the section on the horn there is no
does Strauss refer to the horn solo in the 'Chasse royale', which was
written sixteen years after Berlioz published the 'Treatise' and must
surely have been known to him. A good half of the examples in the
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1839-40:
All this, to be sure, was quite a new world to me, and I was desirous
own ideas of the poetry of music with brutal violence into the very
depths of my soul. I was simply all ears for things of which till then I
had never dreamt, and which I felt I must try to realise. True, I
found a great deal that was empty and shallow in 'Romeo etJuliette',
a work that lost much by its length and form of combination; and
this was the more painful to me seeing that, on the other hand, I felt
drove back his own ideas to the depths of his soul-this was a
Berlioz and Wagner which has had the effect of keeping their work
16 See G. Abraham, 'The Influence of Berlioz on Wagner', Music & Letters, July
1924: and J. Barzun, 'Berlioz and the Romantic Century', ii (1951): "A comparison of
Tristan with certain parts of the Romeo and Juliet Symphony shows that Wagner was
struck by Berlioz's idea of rendering a love call orchestrally by means of the gradual
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