The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-13 00:00:00

Vusital gebitly.

A Treatise on Modern Intl

Orchestration. By Hector Berlioz. Trans-
lated from the French by Mary Cowden
Clarke. London : Novello.

LET our readers imagine a world of sound con-
taining every appreciable degree of depth or
altitude, every quality, character, colour, or tint
of tone, possessing means of expressing all that
the mind of man can feel—of painting in tones
his every sensation, sentiment, or emotion • and
not the passions of the soul merely—not only the
rythmical gestures and movements of the human
body, or accents of the tongue, as set in action
and governed by those passions (for the power of
music is not, as many suppose, limited to such
imitations)—but also those tones of external
nature, those vague, airy voices which haunt the
forest, glen, or mountain—sigh on the night-
wind, whisper in the trees, shriek in the storm-
blast, breathe faintly through the " tingling
silence " of a summer's day, or murmur in the
stream. Tones which are an intelligible lan-
guage only to the poet's ear, and imitable only
by the master's art—such as Weber has ex-
pressed in the weird melodies of his incantation
scene, Beethoven in his Pastoral Symphony,
Mendelssohn in the Midsummer Night's Dream
music, Meyerbeer in his resurrection scene of
Robert le Diable. Let our readers imagine the
wondrous powers of this shadowy realm of
eloquent spirit-voices, and they will have some
idea of the means which modern mechanical
science and the greatly increased proficiency of
orchestral performers have placed at the com-
poser's disposal, and the use that can be made of
them. _ _ _ _

But even since the works of which we have
spoken were composed the orchestral powers
have greatly increased, and, indeed, are still pro-
gressing with such extraordinary rapidity that
the information of an hour's age doth " hiss the
speaker." Thus, M. Berlioz's celebrated " Treatise
upon Modern Instrumentation," which but a few
years ago was regarded as ultra-modern, has
recently been found somewhat behind the
requirements of the day, and the author, feeling
himself called upon to make certain additions to
his work, produced a short time back a new and
more comprehensive edition, of which the publi-
cation under notice is a translation.

The following extract from M. Berlioz's trea-
tise will best discover its purpose and pre-
tension :

Considered in its poetical aspect, this art is as little to
be taught as that of inventing beautiful subjects, fine suc-
cessions of chords, or original and striking rythmical
forms. That which suits various instruments, that which
is practicable or not for them, easy or diff!cult, dull or
sonorous, may be indicated ; it may alsc be pointed out that
such and such an instrument is more fitted than another to
produce certain effects, and to express certain sentiments;
but as for stating their due grouping and association in
small orchestras, or by large masses—as for the art of
uniting them, mixing them, in such a way as to modify
the sound of some by that of others, giving the eombined
effect of a particular note which could be produced by none
of them singly, nor by joining it to instruments of its own
species—this can only be done by instancing the results
obtained by masters in the art, and tracing their mode of
procedure—results which, doubtless, could be again modi-
fied a thousand-fold, well or ill, by such composers as
should reproduce them. The object of this work, then, is
first—the indication of the extent, and of certain essential
parts, of the mechanism of instruments ; and then the
study (hitherto much neglected) of the nature and quality
of tone, particular character, and powers of expression
pertaining to each of tuem ; and, lastly, the best method
known of prozeeding in order to group them appropriately.
To endeavour to step beyond that would be setting foot on
the domain of inspiration, where genius alone is capable of
making discoveries, because to genius alone is reserved the
right, of traversing it.
To the italicised passage commencing " giving the
combined effect " we would call attention, be-
cause, unlike the greater part of Mrs. Cowden
Clarke's translation, which is generally faithful,
it does not quite convey the author's meaning—
or, indeed, any perfectly intelligible sense.
M. Berlioz's words (to quote the entire para-
graph) are :
Quant a l'art de les rennir, de lea meler, de facon
modifier le son des nos par oelni des suttee en faisant re—
mitter de I'ensemble un son patticulier que ne produirait aucun
deux isolement in reuni aux instruments de son &Tice, dre.
Clearly M. Berlioz does not say the " combined
effect of a particular note" (reffet combintS d'une
note particuliere), which would be as obscure in