"[74]
[Footnote 74: _Musikfuehrer_, 29 November, 1903.]
Before this, Berlioz had written in 1864:--
"It is quite easy for others to convince themselves that, without
even limiting me to take a very short melody as the theme of a
composition--as the greatest musicians have often done--I have
always endeavoured to put a wealth of melody into my compositions.
One may, of course, dispute the worth of these melodies, their
distinction, originality, or charm--it is not for me to judge
them--but to deny their existence is either unfair or foolish. They
are often on a large scale; and an immature or short-sighted
musical vision may not clearly distinguish their form; or, again,
they may be accompanied by secondary melodies which, to a limited
vision, may veil the form of the principal ones. Or, lastly,
shallow musicians may find these melodies so unlike the funny
little things that they call melodies, that they cannot bring
themselves to give the same name to both."[75]
And what a splendid variety there is in these melodies: there is the
song in Gluck's style (Cassandre's airs), the pure German _lied_
(Marguerite's song, "D'amour l'ardente flamme"), the Italian melody,
after Bellini, in its most limpid and happy form (arietta of Arlequin in
_Benvenuto_), the broad Wagnerian phrase (finale of _Romeo_), the
folk-song (chorus of shepherds in _L'Enfance du Christ_), and the freest
and most modern recitative (the monologues of Faust), which was
Berlioz's own invention, with its full development, its pliant outline,
and its intricate nuances.
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