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Grande messe des morts: Hector Berlioz's Romantic Interpretation of the Roman Catholic Requiem Tradition

Broderick, Amber E.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1345136918

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music History.
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was commissioned by the French government in 1836 to compose a requiem mass for a state ceremony and to restore sacred music to a respected position in France. Berlioz envisioned a requiem that both continued the Roman Catholic requiem tradition and expanded it in context of the Romantic era and Kunstreligion. Berlioz conceived his Grande messe des morts (Requiem) as a “music drama,” in which the thirteenth-century Latin prose was used as secular poetry rather than an immutable sacred text. Berlioz’s Requiem is not religious in strict theological terms but relates more closely to what Frank Heidlberger calls an artistic statement of his “secular moral philosophy.” Berlioz devised a first-person physiological narrative which presented the listener with a private emotional experience. He achieved this psychological journey, in part, through a Romantic interpretation: textual alterations, programmatic orchestration, and the innovative use of antiphonal brass orchestras. The text was freely edited and rearranged to produce a libretto-type program, which Edward Cone deems a “dramatic portrayal of an imaginary progress through this world and the next.” Berlioz enhanced his interpretation by shifting from the traditional third-person perspective to the first-person. This adjustment required minimal changes to the text but maximum changes for the listener, who experienced a personal journey focused on the individual. I present a detailed textual analysis to shed light upon how Berlioz’s complex relationship with the Roman Catholic Church is reflected in the Requiem using the orchestration, scoring, structure, and literary connections to support my evidence. In what ways does Berlioz’s Requiem reveal connections to his religious and political views? How is his artistic and psychological interpretation presented in the changes to the text? To understand Berlioz’s conception of the text, I detail his experiences with the Church, childhood and adult life, and the political, social, and cultural influences of nineteenth-century France. This thesis will revisit the scholarship of Jacques Barzun, Peter Bloom, David Cairns, Edward Cone, Pierre Citron, Frank Heidlberger, and D. Kern Holoman in combination with my textual analysis and agnostic reading of the narrative to present a secular interpretation of the Requiem.
Arne Spohr (Advisor)
Eftychia Papanikolaou (Committee Member)
107 p.
Music
Hector Berlioz; Grande messe des morts; Requiem; Roman Catholic; requiem; mass; sacred music; secular

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Broderick, A. E. (2012). Grande messe des morts: Hector Berlioz's Romantic Interpretation of the Roman Catholic Requiem Tradition [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1345136918

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Broderick, Amber. Grande messe des morts: Hector Berlioz's Romantic Interpretation of the Roman Catholic Requiem Tradition. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1345136918.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Broderick, Amber. "Grande messe des morts: Hector Berlioz's Romantic Interpretation of the Roman Catholic Requiem Tradition." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1345136918

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.