[Footnote 239: See theMémoires for a rhapsodic account of
his state of mind at this time—“basking in the warm rays of
Shakespeare’s imagination and believing it in his power to arrive
at the marvellous island where rises the temple of pure Art.”]
[Footnote 240: For extended comments and a long citation of
the actual music see the Sixth Volume of theOxford History of
Music.]
After a careful study of the foregoing examples the reader, we
hope, is in a position to make a fair estimate of Berlioz’s power
and to realize his great significance. It should be understood
that this music is intensely subjective and so requires a sympa-
thetic and cultivated attitude on the part of the listener. To
the writer at least, there remains one vital lack in Berlioz’s
music,—that of thedissonant element. It often seems as if his
conceptions could not be fully realized for want of sheer musical
equipment, largely due to insufficient early training. For what is
music without dissonance? Surely “flat, stale and unprofitable”
even if, in Berlioz’s case, this deficiency is offset by great rhyth-
mic vitality and gorgeous color. Yet in his best works[241] there
is such a strong note of individuality, indeed such real char-
acter, that they are deserving of sincere respect and admira-
tion, although by everybody they may not be deeply loved. We
should, furthermore, always remember that, if Berlioz’s poverty
of harmonic effect is sometimes annoying, he never falls into the
humdrum ruts of those who have had a stereotyped academic
training. His genius was unhampered by any conventional har-
monic vocabulary, and hence it could always express itself freely.
That he was a real genius no one can fairly doubt.
[Footnote 241: For valuable analytical comments on Berlioz’s
orchestral style see Vol. VIII, Chapter X, of theArt of Mu-
sic(César Saerchinger, N.Y.), and for biographical details and
matters of general import, Vol. II, Chap. IX.]
All the qualities which have been enumerated as typical of the
romantic temperament: warmth of sentiment, broad culture,
love of color and the sensuous side of music, freedom of form,
and stress laid on the orchestra as the most eloquent means of
expression, reach their climax in Franz Liszt (1811-1886). Born
near Vienna of a Hungarian father and a German mother, but
chiefly associated with Paris, Weimar, Budapest and Rome, he
is certainly the most picturesque and versatile figure in the music