Grand Symphonie for Band

1. Marche funèbre - 2. Oraison funèbre - 3. Apothéose

Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale

Der Innenminister beauftragte Hector Berlioz mit der Komposition einer Symphonie zur Einweihung der Bastille-Säule, anlässlich des 10. Jahrestages der Juli-Revolution. Am 28. Juli 1840, dem Tag der Juli-Gedächtnisfeiern, wurde die "Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale" aufgeführt. Die Geschichte der Komposition und der Aufführung der Symphonie ist von Berlioz selbst in seinen "Mémoires" sowie in einem Brief, den er seinem Vater zwei Tage nach der Erstaufführung schrieb, erzählt worden.
Berlioz schreibt: "Ich glaubte, dass für ein solches Werk der einfachste Plan der beste wäre, und dass allein eine grosse Anzahl von Blasinstrumenten sich für eine Symphonie eignete, die bestimmt war - beim ersten Mal wenigstens - im Freien aufgeführt zu werden. Ich wollte zuerst die Kämpfe der ruhmvollen drei Tage in Erinnerung rufen, inmitten der schmerzlichen Melodien eines schrecklichen und zugleich verzweiflungsvollen Marsches, den man bei der Prozession spielen würde; sodann eine Art Grab- oder Abschiedsrede an die glorreichen Helden zu Gehör bringen, in dem Augenblick, da die Leichname in die monumentale Gruft hinabgelassen würden und schliesslich die Apothéose, wenn der Grabstein gesetzt und das Volk nichts anderes vor Augen haben würde als die hohe Säule, bekrönt von der Freiheit, die sich mit ausgebreiteten Flügeln zum Himmel schwingt, wie die Seelen derer, die für sie starben."
Während der Feierlichkeiten folgte auf einen Gedächtnisgottesdienst in der Kirche von Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, Rue du Louvre, die Trauerprozession, die sich von der Kirche zum Place de la Concorde und von dort über die Madeleine und die Boulevards zum Place de la Bastille begab. Berlioz marschierte die ganze Zeit an der Spitze der uniformierten Musiker und dirigierte. Die letzte Wiederholung der Apothéose, welche die Zeremonie beschliessen sollte, wurde unglücklicherweise durch die Manöver der Nationalgarde übertönt.
Die Symphonie wurde in den folgenden Monaten noch dreimal aufgeführt (in geschlossenen Räumen), u.a. auch bei einem Festival in der Opéra mit über 450 Ausführenden.
Die Chorstimmen (ad lib.) wurden von Berlioz erst zwei Jahre später in die Apothéose eingearbeitet.


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When one reads of the extraordinarily enthusiastic response, by both the public and by distinguished composers, to early performances of this symphony one cannot help but wonder why few conductors today are interested in this great score.
Of course we know today only the final version, and that is in the hand of a copyist save a few opening measures in the hand of Berlioz. All earlier manuscript forms of the score were destroyed by Berlioz. It does make one wonder if the earlier versions were different to some degree and indeed there is some evidence to suggest that the original version of the first movement was in a different key than the version we know today. The very title changed several times, his first version being simply Military Symphony.
The famous French composer, Adolphe Adam, for example, in a letter of 1840 tells us that he heard the third movement, "Apotheose,” performed as a work entirely written in four-bar phrases. But the movement as we know it today has a long section of three-bar phrases. This vamp-like section has always seemed to us as being intended as the place where the chorus, which Berlioz added later, might march into the hall. And then the version we know today of the first movement, "Marche funebre,” contains music which stylistically seems to us out of place as music to be performed while marching down the street. We are thinking, for example, of the cries of terror in the unison woodwinds punctuated by the canon-like sounds of the great bass drum and timpani beginning in measure 240 and the haunting trombone melody of the transition section in the recapitulation.
But, such speculation does not answer our question. We believe the factor most responsible for conductors not understanding this work today is a very unfortunate tradition begun some fifty years ago of performing the first movement very slow, often at a tempo of a quarter-note = 60 or even slower. This tradition no doubt began under the faithful intent of selecting a tempo that would reflect an actual funeral procession, as might be suggested in the title of the movement, "funeral march.” The essential problem is that the melodic material of the first movement consists of long note values, which taken together with a very slow tempo results in a performance which is tedious and boring.
But the evidence has never suggested such a slow tempo. For one thing, Berlioz tells us, in a letter to his father, that in the street performance, during which he conducted 210 military band musicians while walking backwards, that they performed not only the first movement six times but also the third movement six times. Well, if one imagines the soldiers marching at a funeral procession pace of 60 quarter-notes per minute, then the third movement becomes musically impossible. And, of course, one cannot imagine a circumstance in which the 210 walking musicians changed the speed of their walk eleven times during the procession in order to accommodate the differing tempo needs of the two movements.
A common tempo at which both movements might be walked and played while maintaining some musical logic for both might be one of about 72 quarter-notes per minute. Curiously, this is exactly what is written in the autograph score. While scholars do not agree whether the "72” is in Berlioz' hand, even if it is not one can still suppose it was added by someone familiar with the earlier performances which Berlioz conducted, for this particular score does not appear to have ever been used in later performances.
Furthermore, a tempo of 72 quarter-notes per minute is consistent with Italian expression labels which are in Berlioz' hand. The first movement he calls "Moderato un poco lento.” We might add that on our modern metronome the "Moderato” range is given as 108 – 120 beats per minute!
The association of "72” with "Moderato un poco lento” in the first movement seems to correspond well with his tempo for the second movement. Here he gives "69” for an "Andantino,” an Italian term we would associate with a slower tempo than the Moderato. An "Andante” would be slower still and we see in an Andante in Les Francs Juges that Berlioz has marked "58.”
No where has Berlioz suggested a very slow tempo for the first movement. We recommend the modern conductor determine his tempo on the basis of the musical logic found in the music itself and dismiss from his mind any extra-musical thoughts of an actual funeral procession.