INCREDIBLE SOUNDS
It is a good thing that Hector Berlioz left behind his detailed Memoires, which are well worth reading. Of course, taking into consideration the caution that one must employ with autobiographical works, they remain an important factor in the understanding of Berlioz’ compositions. After all, the musical work of the Frenchman is extremely self-centred and self-focussed.
As a young man already, Berlioz was well-read and given to fantasizing. He rapidly identified Gluck and Spontini as his musical “house deities”, and Rossini and Boildieu as “intimate enemies”. An academic omission was of decisive significance for his outstanding position in the history of music: i.e. the fact that, although he studied counterpoint and fugue with Anton Reicha at the Paris Conservatoire, he worked on instrumentation exclusively as an autodidact. In doing so, he discovered the “hidden relationship which exists between musical expression and the true art of instrumentation.” But Berlioz, the towering innovator and undisputed founder of the modern orchestra, whose towering skills and revolutionary innovations in the field of instrumentation were emphasized by the critics – was an autodidact in precisely this area!
As does his Symphonie fantastique, his Requiem (Grande messe des morts) contains a high degree of individuality. Albrecht Dümling described it as an “apocryphal drama of the epic I”, and denoted the work “in analogy to the ego-structure of the Symphonie fantastique” as a “Requiem fantastique”. Already following the first performances, the critics emphasized the dramatic and fantastical elements of the requiem. Thus Eduard Hanslick described it as a “fantastical drama”.
At the beginning of 1837, Berlioz had received a commission from the French Minister of the Interior (with whom the Berlioz family was acquainted) to compose a requiem for the anniversary of the death of Marshal Mortier and for the sacrifices made during the July revolution in 1830. In just three months, the composer put the almost 1500 bars of the work down on paper. He plunged into the work with huge enthusiasm: “For me, the text of the Requiem was a long sought-after booty, which had at last been granted to me, and at which I threw myself with a kind of fury. [...] My head seemed to burst with the effort of my burning ideas.” Therefore, Berlioz was mortally offended during the final rehearsals, when he discovered that the planned memorial ceremony had been cancelled about a week before the scheduled performance date. “No more talk about the July heroes! Woe betide the defeated! And woe betide the victors! Thus I happened to discover, after conducting the three choir rehearsals, that the ceremony will no longer take place, and that therefore my Requiem will no longer be performed. [...] Nothing could go wrong now, and I believe that the listener would have heard quite some innovative music.”
Luckily, the work was finally performed in December 1837 – as part of a state funeral for the fallen veteran of Algeria, General Denys de Damrémont. On December 5, the première of the Requiem took place in the Invalidendom in Paris, and resulted in a tremendous success for Berlioz.
The Requiem requires a monumental orchestra, which has not been equalled in the history of music. The main orchestra consists of 180 instruments: 4 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 cors anglais, 4 clarinets, 8 bassoons, 4 cornets à pistons, 12 horns, 4 tubas, 16 kettledrums, base drum, “rührtrommel” (= marching drum), 4 tom-toms, 10 cymbals, 25 first violins, 25 second violins, 20 violas, 20 cellos, and 18 double-basses. However, that was not considered sufficient, as he had an additional four orchestras in the distance, containing 38 brass winds placed throughout the hall. (4 cornets à pistons, 12 trumpets, 16 trombones, 2 tubas and 4 ophicleides). For the vocal part, Berlioz came up with the following minimum demands: a solo tenor, 80 female voices, 60 tenors and 70 basses. This enormous apparatus, consisting of more than 400 singers and instrumentalists, was intended to function within the context of a true “sound-production” and was brought into action at certain points, expanding the musical space to the extreme. At first glance, the monumental dimensions are deceptive: finally, Berlioz brings into action his collective symphonic hosts to great effect in only three movements (Tuba mirum, Rex tremendae and Lacrimosa), whereas the majority of the musical design follows more closely the individual mourning criteria in its inward-looking and intimate mood.
The above-mentioned revolutionary instrumental style plays a truly crucial role in the Requiem. Berlioz does not primarily stress the development of massive sound, rather he emphasizes the fabrication and portrayal of highly specific tone colours, which are created mainly by the peculiar instrumental combinations. An example of this is the Hostias, in which the instruments are taken to extreme limits (highest flute tones vs. lowest trombone tones) – here, music becomes pure noise. Undoubtedly, it is precisely the garishly picturesque “unshackling of the horror” (Kölmel) with its armour plated force which forms a theatrical and fantastical portrayal of the Last Judgement, but ultimately it is the a capella movements in the Quarens me, the magnificent sound effects of the 10 cymbals played pianissimo possibile, or perhaps the opera-like tenor aria, which make of Berlioz’ Requiem a work, which formally draws the listener into the music with its intimate mood. Not only did Berlioz know precisely which significance his requiem would have for posterity, but also what it meant to him. In a letter dating from 1867, he wrote the following: “Were I forced to burn my entire oeuvre, with the exception of a single score, then I would beg mercy for the Requiem.”

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