Title: A travers chants
Description: 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.
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation, France, History and criticism, Music, Musical criticism, Opera, Symphony, Music, history and criticism, Gluck, christoph willibald, ritter von, 1714-1787, Opera, france, Beethoven, ludwig van, 1770-1827, Music, history and criticism, 19th century, Music, history and criticism, 18th century, Composers, Biography
People: Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787), Christoph Willibald Gluck Ritter von (1714-1787), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Time periods: 18th century, 19th century