Mozart, Beethoven, Weber and Schubert were of the first.”
[Footnote 227: It is understood that this is merely a personal
opinion of the writer and might well have been prefaced by the
Socratic “it seems to me.” Too much criticism reminds us of
wine-tasting—Mr. So-and-So likes port, Mr. So-and-So sherry.
The object of fair-minded appreciation is to understand clearly
just what each composer set out to do,i.e., what was the natural
tendency of his individual genius; then the only question is: did
or did he not do this well? It is futile to blame him because he
was not someone else or did not achieve what he never set out
to do.]
As Berlioz is, if possible, even more idiomatic for the orches-
tra than Chopin for the pianoforte, no conception of the real
quality of his message can be gained from transcriptions, how-
ever good. His works[228] must be studied at first hand in the
orchestral score and then heard in performance by an excel-
lent orchestra. Some preliminary acquaintance and apprecia-
tion, however, of characteristic features in his style is possible
from arrangements and so we select for comment the follow-
ing works and movements: TheFantastic Symphony, theCar-
naval RomainOverture, theBallet des Sylphesand theFeux
Folletsfrom theDamnation of Faust, thePilgrim’s Marchfrom
theChilde HaroldSymphony and the Slow Movement from the
Romeo and JulietSymphony.[229] There is much valuable and
stimulating reading[230] about Berlioz and his influence; for, as
Théophile Gautier acutely remarks, “S’il fut un grand génie, on
peut le discuter encore, le monde est livré aux controverses; mais
nul ne penserait à nier qu’il fut un grand caractère.” TheSym-
phonie[231]fantastique, op. 14,épisode de la vie d’un artiste, in
five movements is significant for being the first manifestation of
Berlioz’s conviction that music should be yet more specifically
expressive, since it is founded on a characteristic theme, called
l’idée fixe which typifies the heroine,e.g.
[Music]
[Footnote 228: The best edition is the complete one, beautifully
engraved and with critical comments, by Malherbe and Wein-
gartner. This is expensive, but should be found in any large
library.]
[Footnote 229: The only citations possible in the Supplement
are the Overture and portions of a few of the others.]