Music: An Art and a Language

orchestra, give forth the greatest beauty and variety of sound
became an end in itself; and from his ingenious and innovat-
ing effects has been evolved the orchestra as we hear it to-day.
Berlioz thought, so to speak, in terms of orchestral color. In
his melodies we do not feel that the drawing, the contour of
the pure line, is the chief thing; but that the assignment of
the melody to just the right instrument, and the color-effect
thereby produced, are integral parts of the conception. Notwith-
standing the fact that some of his effects are extravagant or at
times bizarre, he must be credited with revealing possibilities
in orchestral shading and color which, still further developed by
Wagner, Strauss and Tchaikowsky, have become conventional
means of expression. Some of his most celebrated and satisfy-
ing works, in addition to those mentioned, are theHarold in
ItalySymphony, with its personification by a solo viola of the
chief character; theRomeo and JulietSymphony, for both vocal
and instrumental forces (of which the ball-scene with its won-
drous love-melody and theQueen MabScherzo—unequalled for
daintiness—represent his highest attainments as a tone-poet)
and, most popular of all, theDamnation of Faust based on
scenes from Goethe’s poem. The bewitching incidental pieces
for orchestra alone, such as theBallet of Sylphsand theRakoczy
March, are often played at symphony concerts, and are familiar
to everyone. Certain blemishes in Berlioz’s music are obvious
and need not be over-emphasized. There is often more style and
outward effect than real substance. His works excite, but how
seldom do they exalt! For he was frequently deficient in depth of
emotion and in latent warmth—qualities quite different from the
hectic glow and the feverish passion which his French admirers,
Tiersot and Boschot, claim to be genuine attributes of musical
inspiration, of power to compel universal attention. We of other
nations can only firmly dissent. Without question his work has
never succeeded in calling forth the spontaneous love of a large
body of admirers.[227] In an eloquent passage the conductor and
critic Weingartner sums up the case: “Berlioz will always repre-
sent a milestone in the development of music, for he is the real
founder of the modern school. He did not approach that ethi-
cal depth, that ideal purity which surround Beethoven’s name
with such unspeakable glory, but no composer since Beethoven,
except Wagner, has enriched music with so many new means of
expression as this great Frenchman. Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner
are the heroes of the last half of the 19th century, just as Haydn,