Evening star., 1954-12-26
News Of Music
BerIioz Enfonce' Opus
To Be Given | omorrow
By Doy Thorpe

In Paris. The composer was
proclaimed to be one Pierre
Ducre, music master Of the
Sainte- Chapelle, and the date
Of composition 1879.
Earlier works Of Berlioz had
not usually found q favorable
public on first performance.
and the composers pleasure ct
the acclaim accorded this
piece was tempered by the fact
that almost no one was COM
scious Of the hoax Of author
ship. A person would have to
be as Ignorant as o fish," said
Berlioz, to believe that the
music could have been writ
ten In 1879.
The irony Of the successful
premiere is that IL Enhance
du Christ is typical Of all the
best Of Berlioz. The never
ending and unclassifiable mel-
ody. the strength and sureness
Of the harmony. the magical
deiicacy Of the orchestration.
the original and sharp drama
tic structure. the freshness.
grace and perstlasiyeness Of
the whole all could be the
work Of Berlioz and Of nobody
else.
Fused With Religion
The work Of no other mod
ern composer Of stature Is 50
Enthusiastically fused with
religion and the church as
that Of Berlioz.
It Is not too much to say
that the religious aspect Is
absent In only a few of his
compositions. Three Of his
major pieces-the Requiem.
the TIE Deum. and 'L'Enfance"
are clearly religious works;
there are besides a Mass, the
Passage Of the Red Sea-" the
Meditation Religieuse," and
other shorter pieces.
"The Damnation Of Faust"
the Harold in Italy" SYM
pl1ony, the Fantastic Sym
phony, the Symphonic Fune-
bre ct Triomphale," Romeo ct
Juliette," and "The Trojans"
each has sections based either
on specific. religious ritual or
on more generalized aspects Of
devotion.
But though Berlioz denied
the existence of God and
therefore saw the church as
only a more or less inept busy
body, he was nevertheless per-
fectly suited to the task of put
ting into music what others
expect from the church, for
he had to an intense degree
the capacity for reverence,
devotion and alteration. He
never to the end of his life
was ashamed of his fanat-
ical worship of his idols
Goethe, Gluck, Beethoven,
Shakespeare and Virgil. In
dividuality and accomplish
ment were what he loved and
respected, and his formal writ
ings and letters show him al
ways with the keenest SYM
pathy for any fellow man
close enough by to be seen or
heard.
Fascinated by Church
Berlioz' lifelong sense Of
humanity, his delight in the
individual, his contempt for
the herd. made the church
that he rejected a persistent
attraction and a continuing
interest. The universally Of
1t as an institution, and the
crassness he saw in its every
day operations. fascinated him
and captivated his sympathy.
He poured the result of his
immersion in the human reli--
gious spirit into his music,
and unless we want to deny
Macbeth and Faust because
their creators were not a mur-
derer and an alchemist, we can
hardly deny "L'Enfance du
Christ" and the other great
religious works Of Berlioz be-
cause their creator was more
at home in church with a
baton in his hand than with
q pad under his knees.
Furthermore. to mention q
theory of mine about which I
have written before, there Is
no difference between the es-
sence of the greatest religious
music and that of the greatest
secular music. Composers Of
the first rank write music for
inside and outside the church
49, a.. -, Ill of