Chapter 33

THE CARNAVAL

ROMAIN OVERTURE

(SEE SUPPLEMENT NO. 57)

This work is one of Berlioz’s most brilliant pieces, with an or-
chestral life and color all its own. The material is taken from
his operaBenvenuto Cellini;[235] the checquered career of this
artist having made an irresistible appeal to Berlioz’s love of
the unusual and the spectacular. The body of the work is
based on the Italian national dance, the Saltarello; and with
this rhythm as a steadying background Berlioz achieves a con-
tinuity sometimes lacking in his work. The mere thought of the
sights, sounds and colors of that important event in the life of
Rome would be enough to inflame his susceptible imagination,
and so here we have Berlioz at his very best. The overture be-
gins, allegro assai con fuoco, with a partial announcement of the
saltarello theme by the violins and violas, freely imitated by the
wood-wind instruments,e.g.

[Music]

[Footnote 235: For an entertaining account of the subject matter
of the opera see Chapter VII of Boschot’sUn Romantique sous
Louis Philippe.]

After a sudden prolonged silence and some crescendo trills the
first periodic melody is introduced, sung by the English horn—