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Contents of this page:
Introduction
Composers covered
Scores available
Contact address
This page is also available in French
Last update: 1 April 2008
Copyright notice: The texts, photos, images and musical scores on all pages of this site are covered by UK Law and International Law. All rights of publication or reproduction of this material in any form, including Web page use, are reserved. Their use without our explicit permission is illegal.
This page is intended to serve as a companion page to the collection Berlioz Music Scores and its associated texts. It presents a selection of orchestral and instrumental scores of a number of composers who were either predecessors of Berlioz (such as Gluck, Beethoven, and Weber), or contemporaries (such as Halévy or Meyerbeer), or indeed both at once (such as Spontini, whose major works were mostly written earlier but who lived on well into Berlioz’s lifetime). In most cases the common starting point is the citation of a score, or part of it, of composers such as these in Berlioz’s Treatise on Instrumentation and Orchestration of 1844 (2nd edition 1855), of which substantial excerpts are reproduced elsewhere on this site. A list of the scores cited by Berlioz, arranged alphabetically by composers, is also provided here for convenience.
This page provides an almost complete collection of the purely orchestral scores cited in Berlioz’s Treatise; the citations in the Treatise are usually only of excerpts, but wherever possible the complete piece or movement is given. The scores are notated using the musical notation programme Sibelius (version I.4 till April 2004, version 3 for new scores created from May 2004 onwards); they may be viewed online and played back using a computer sound card or sound module, and the Scorch plug-in available as a free download from the Sibelius site. It is always advisable to use the latest version of Scorch, which is in any case required for scores created with Sibelius version 3. For further information on Sibelius and on the various limitations that are to be expected in the reproduction of musical sounds, consult the page Berlioz Music Scores (all vocal music is unfortunately excluded by definition, since present technology can only simulate musical instruments, but not voices with words).
The page also comprises a selection of other orchestral scores of these composers, not cited in the Treatise, in so far as they may illuminate Berlioz’s relations with their music, and subject to their availability. The selection will be further enlarged with scores of other composers, whether contemporary or past, whose music Berlioz particularly liked, even though they may not have exercised any major influence on his own: in fact, the number of composers explicitly acknowledged as influences by Berlioz was restricted, and his approach was always eclectic. It is hoped in this way to make available in time not just some better known pieces (including complete Beethoven symphonies – nos. 3, 5, 6, and 7 are now available), but also comparative rarities.
A separate page is devoted to each composer included here – Gluck, Weber etc. – and provides an outline of that composer’s relations with Berlioz and an assessment of his significance for Berlioz and his music. Extensive use will be made of Berlioz’s own writings – his correspondence, Memoirs, and writings on music, including the full text of Berlioz’s Critical Study of the Symphonies of Beethoven, from À travers chants, both in the original French and in English translation. All translations are by Michel Austin. For detailed information about the editions used consult the page Berlioz: Musical and Literary Works. Each page also links up with the scores of that composer which are included here and provides further details about them.
A summary history of this page is provided separately.
An *asterisk indicates an addition or change since the previous update.
Further information on each score is provided on the page dealing with the relevant composer.
An *asterisk indicates an addition or change since the previous update.
Beethoven
Third Symphony (Eroica) (complete)
Fourth Symphony
Fifth Symphony (complete)
Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) (complete)
Seventh Symphony (complete)
Gluck
Alceste, Act I, Ballet (Pantomime)
Armide, Act III Dance of Hate (1)
Iphigénie en Tauride, Act I Scene 1 (excerpt)
Iphigénie en Tauride, Act I, Ballet
Orphée, Act I, Pantomime (Funeral Rites)
Orphée, Act II, Dance of the Furies (1)
Orphée, Act II, Dance of the Furies (2)
Orphée, Act II, Ballet 1 (Dance of the Blessed Spirits)
Halévy
La Juive, Introduction to Act I [requires Scorch 3]
La Juive, Act IV, orchestral ritornello of Eléazar’s aria
La Juive, March from Act V [requires Scorch 3]
Méhul
Meyerbeer
Robert le Diable, Act III (excerpt 1)
Robert le Diable, Act III (excerpt 2)
Overture and introduction: Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots, Act III Danse Bohémienne
Les Huguenots, Act V Entr’acte and Ballet
Les Huguenots, Act V Trio (excerpt)
Spontini
La Vestale, Act II Scene 2 (ritornello)
Weber
Jubel Overture [requires Scorch 3]
Der Freischütz, Entr’acte to Act III
Overture Euryanthe [requires Scorch 3]
Weber: Invitation to the Dance, orch. Berlioz
Weber: Invitation to the Dance, original piano version
The Hector Berlioz Website was created by Michel Austin
and Monir Tayeb on 18
July 1997
Berlioz: Predecessors and Contemporaries created on 11
December 2002
© 2002-2008 Michel Austin for all scores and text on this and related pages
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