In nearly all the
big works of Berlioz before 1845 (that is up to the _Damnation_) you
will find this nervous precision and sweeping liberty.
[Footnote 85: _Memoires_, II, 365.]
[Footnote 86: "This composition contains a dose of sublimity much too
strong for the ordinary public; and Berlioz, with the splendid insolence
of genius, advises the conductor, in a note, to turn the page and pass
it over" (Georges de Massougnes, _Berlioz_). This fine study by Georges
de Massougnes appeared in 1870, and is very much in advance of its
time.]
Then there is the freedom of his rhythms. Schumann, who was nearest to
Berlioz of all musicians of that time, and, therefore, best able to
understand him, had been struck by this since the composition of the
_Symphonic fantastique_,[87] He wrote:--
"The present age has certainly not produced a work in which similar
times and rhythms combined with dissimilar times and rhythms have
been more freely used. The second part of a phrase rarely
corresponds with the first, the reply to the question. This anomaly
is characteristic of Berlioz, and is natural to his southern
temperament.
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