Berlioz in Paris
Église Saint-Eustache
This monumental church, near the Forum des Halles, was built between 1532 and 1637. It provided an ideal setting for the performance of large-scale choral works. Already in 1827 the early Messe Solennelle had been performed for the second time, under Berlioz’s baton, at this church. The Grande Messe des Morts, first performed at Les Invalides in 1837 under the direction of Habeneck, was performed three times at Saint-Eustache under Berlioz himself, in 1846, 1850 and 1852. It was appropriate therefore that Berlioz should have conducted the première of his magnificent Te Deum in that church on 30 April 1855, though the work had been composed six years earlier.
The score of Te Deum is
written for solo tenor, triple chorus, orchestra, and organ. The organ is mostly
used not to augment the sonority of the orchestra but to contrast with it. Organ
and orchestra, as Berlioz described it, should be like "Pope and Emperor,
speaking in dialogue from opposite ends of the nave". In a letter to Liszt,
dated 1 January 1853, Berlioz, talking about the Te Deum, writes: "the organ
does not accompany, but rather enters into dialogue with the orchestra" (Correspondance
Générale no. 1552). He
also makes similar comments in the organ
section of his Treatise on orchestration and instrumentation to
explain the different roles of the orchestra and the organ: "The organ and
the orchestra are both Kings, or rather one is Emperor and the other Pope; they
have different missions, their interests are too vast and too divergent to be
confused."
Interior of St Eustache around 1830
This is an 1830 engraving showing the nave, scanned from A. Pugin’s book Paris and its Environs, published in London in 1831, in our collection.
Interior of St Eustache today
At the première
of the Te Deum the orchestra, "the Emperor", and
the choruses were
placed at the altar end of the nave.
This is the organ, "the Pope", which entered into dialogue with Berlioz’s orchestra at the première of the Te Deum.
© 2000-2008 (unless otherwise stated) Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for all the photos, engravings and information on this and other Berlioz in Paris pages
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