During the performances of fashionable operas in an unidentified but "civilized" town in northern Europe, the musicians (with the exception of the conscientious bass drummer) tell tales, read stories, and exchange gossip to relieve the tedium of the bad music they are paid to perform. In this delightful and now classic narrative written by the brilliant composer and critic Hector Berlioz, we are privy to twenty-five highly entertaining evenings with a fascinating group of distracted performers. As we near the two-hundredth anniversary of Berlioz's birth, Jacques Barzun's pitch-perfect translation of Evenings with the Orchestra with a new foreword by Berlioz scholar Peter Bloom testifies to the enduring pleasure found in this most witty and amusing book. "[F]ull of knowledge, penetration, good sense, individual wit, stock humor, justifiable exasperation, understanding exaggeration, emotion and rhetoric of every kind" Randall Jarrell, New York Times Book Review "To succeed in [writing these tales], as Berlioz most brilliantly does, requires a combination of qualities which is very rare, the many-faceted curiosity of the dramatist with the aggressively personal vision of the lyric poet" W. H. Auden, The Griffin

Evenings with the Orchestra

BERLIOZ, Hector

University of Chicago Press

In this narrative by the brilliant composer and critic Hector Berlioz, we are privy to twenty-five highly entertaining evenings with musicians who tell tales, read stories, and exchange gossip to relieve the tedium of the mediocre music they are paid to perform. Jacques Barzun's pitch-perfect translation brings out the graceful satire of Berlioz's Evenings, while a new Foreword by Peter Bloom testifies to the enduring pleasure found in this witty and amusing book.

Evenings With the Orchestra

Arts & Photography

Music

Univ of Chicago Pr

A daring composer in his own right, Hector Berlioz made a considerable reputation and a modest living for himself writing about music. This compact volume gathers brief, pithy essays Berlioz wrote on Beethoven's nine symphonies, his opera, Fidelio, and his piano sonatas and trios. Berlioz vividly depicts the salient features of the music with observations that are acute and passionate, as valuable for musicians as for amateurs. Beyond its astute commentary on the music, however, Berlioz's book offers a rare firsthand look at the reception and reputation accorded Beethoven's music in the decades following his death. Berlioz transcribes the comments of amateurs leaving the conservatoire after a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and provides a mocking glimpse of the French appreciation of the great German composer: What stands in the way of the music of 'Fidelio' as regards the Parisian public is ... the great disdain of the composer for sonorous effects which are not justified. He addresses Beethoven's skillful use of the orchestra as an instrument of drama and the general disapprobation that greeted this approach. He also includes a satirical piece on the fad of calling up the spirit of a composer and transcribing new, posthumous compositions. Berlioz's essays testify to the tumult caused by Beethoven's music in his time and offer ways to approach the music that remain enlightening and fresh.

A Critical Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies

University of Illinois Press

"Berlioz the person-composer-writer is the sensitive child of his century and a most passionate voice of his time." ―The Opera Quarterly
"Berlioz could hardly have been better served than by the translator of this English edition... It is an invaluable and long-overdue addition to the Berlioz literature in English. Elisabeth Csicsery-Rónay has given us an A travers chants for the millennium." ―Music and Letters
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was equally prominent as composer and music critic. A Travers Chants is the collection of writings he himself selected from his thirty-odd years of musical journalism. This new translation, phrased in lively, idiomatic English and annotated for the twentieth-century reader, is illustrated with lithographs and drawings from Berlioz's lifetime.

The Art of Music and Other Essays: (A Travers Chants)

Indiana University Press

A Critical Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies, With a Few Words on His Trios and Sonatas (Classic Reprint): A Criticism of Fidelio, and an Introductory Essay on Music

A Critical Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies, With a Few Words on His Trios and Sonatas: A Criticism of Fidelio, and an Introductory Essay on Music (Classic Reprint)

History

Forgotten Books

Excerpt from Die Musiker und die Musik%erlioa mar ieit 5tnei Sahren au5 ?rom 3uriicfgefehrt unb ichon beinahe berühmt: {{eine Dunertiire 5u @onig Bear, bie Duber= türe 3u ben >franes Jugessymphonie fantastique unb bie (c)arolb=69nrphonie hatte er aufiühren Iafien. 9iber bennoch war er arm. (c)eine (c)cirat mit (c)enriette @mithion berichlimmerte noeh {{eine mififichen 23erhiiltnifie. (R)ie 21rtifei, tueiche er für einige Siebnen ichrieb (für l'europe littéraire, Revue européenne, Monde dramatique, Conespondant, Gazette musicale) wurben nur mäßig be5ahlt. (c)(R)iieélich' um {{eine eigenen %orte 5u gebrauchen: "mußte er nicht mehr an welchen (c)eiligen er fich teenben io&#64258;te.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Die Musiker und die Musik (Classic Reprint) (German Edition)

An entrancing, firsthand portrait of one of the nineteenth century's most prolific composers and men of letters. One of the foremost composers of his generation, Hector Berlioz was even more influential as an arbiter of musical taste and a writer of critical essays, published in the Parisian Journal des debats. But professional journalism was a sometimes unwelcome task for this supreme intellectual, who felt hindered by considerations of diplomacy and censorship. Letter writing, on the other hand, provided him a freer outlet for creative expression, and his surviving correspondences number over several thousand. From that extraordinary output Hugh Macdonald has gathered some 500 letters that span Berlioz's life and chart the course of his artistic career. Dipped into or read straight through, Selected Letters of Berlioz is highly entertaining and informative reading for any music lover. In the words of poet W. H. Auden, "In order to understand the nineteenth century, it is essential to understand Berlioz."

Selected Letters of Berlioz

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Conductor: The Theory of His Art

Scholarly Pr

Les Troyens A Carthage: Opéra en Cinq Actes (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

Self-revelations of tormented great composer; musical life in Paris, Wagner and other contemporaries, musical opinions, much more. 11 plates.

Memoirs of Hector Berlioz : From 1803 to 1865, Comprising His Travels in Germany, Italy, Russia, and England

Literature & Fiction

Dover Publications

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BERLIOZ, Hector. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by BERLIOZ, Hector