]
These hurricanes are let loose in order to speak to the people, to stir
and rouse the dull ocean of humanity. The _Requiem_ is a Last Judgment,
not meant, like that of the Sixtine Chapel (which Berlioz did not care
for at all) for great aristocracies, but for a crowd, a surging,
excited, and rather savage crowd. The _Marche de Rakoczy_ is less an
Hungarian march than the music for a revolutionary fight; it sounds the
charge; and Berlioz tells us it might bear Virgil's verses for a
motto:--
" ... Furor iraque mentes
Praecipitant, pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis."[103]
When Wagner heard the _Symphonic funebre et triomphale_ he was forced to
admit Berlioz's "skill in writing compositions that were popular in the
best sense of the word."
"In listening to that symphony I had a lively impression that any
little street boy in a blue blouse and red bonnet would understand
it perfectly. I have no hesitation in giving precedence to that
work over Berlioz's other works; it is big and noble from the first
note to the last; a fine and eager patriotism rises from its first
expression of compassion to the final glory of the apotheosis, and
keeps it from any unwholesome exaggeration.
Pages:
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100