Fourteen revealing essays by a prominent Berlioz authority on some of the composer's acclaimed compositions (the Symphonie fantastique, Les Nuits d'ete, Les Troyens) and writings (the celebrated Memoires). Written for both music lovers and scholars, these essays probe some of Berlioz's major works, including the Symphonie fantastique (the period of whose genesis is newly explored), Les Nuits d'ete (whose origins are newly clarified by a revelation regarding Berlioz's possible muse), the Symphonie militaire (whose existence is examined in the period before it became the Symphonie funebre et triomphale), Les Troyens (whose epilogue is seen as a paean to Napoleon III), and Beatrice et Benedict (whose text reveals extraordinary understanding of the original play). The essays consider anew Berlioz's relationships with Franz Liszt (with whom the composer shared intimate details of his marriage to Harriet Smithson) and Richard Wagner (by whom the Frenchman was both charmed and alarmed), his travels in Germany (revealed as having had a specifically administrative purpose), his appreciation of English literature and Shakespeare (on whose work he was considered an expert), his modus operandi in composing the Memoires, and his major twentieth-century biographers. Of conspicuous concern are the "politics" of a man sometimes erroneously viewed as distant from the political arena. This book is openly available in digital format, under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND, thanks to generous funding from The New Berlioz Edition Trust.

About the Author
PETER BLOOM is the Grace Jarcho Ross Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Smith College.

Reviews
[This] product of four decades of scholarly work... provides useful and interesting enrichments to present-day Berlioz research; and it caps, in sure-handed fashion, the academic career of one of that field's great specialists. Always interestingly and in a closely argued manner, Bloom does not shy from offering speculation. One of this book's strong points is the sense that one gets of Bloom's deep knowledge of sources. -- Matthieu Cailliez * Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9781648250200
Author Professor Peter Bloom
Format Paperback
Page Count 374
Imprint University of Rochester Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 1g