Editing Hector Berlioz (section)

==Works==
{{See also|List of works by Hector Berlioz}}
In his 1983 book ''The Musical Language of Berlioz'', [[Julian Rushton]] asks "where Berlioz comes in the history of musical forms and what is his progeny". Rushton's answers to these questions are "nowhere" and "none".<ref>Rushton (1983), p. 257</ref> He cites well-known studies of musical history in which Berlioz is mentioned only in passing or not at all, and suggests that this is partly because Berlioz had no models among his predecessors and was a model to none of his successors. "In his works, as in his life, Berlioz was a lone wolf".<ref>Rushton (1983), p. 258</ref> Forty years earlier, [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]], a lifelong proponent of Berlioz's music, commented similarly, writing that although, for example, Mozart was a greater composer, his music drew on the works of his predecessors, whereas Berlioz's works were all wholly original: "the ''Symphonie fantastique'' or ''La Damnation de Faust'' broke upon the world like some unaccountable effort of spontaneous generation which had dispensed with the machinery of normal parentage".<ref>Beecham, p. 183</ref>
[[File:Béatrice-et-Bénédict-Overture-opening.png|upright=1.5|Opening of ''[[Béatrice et Bénédict]]'' overture, showing characteristic rhythmic variations|thumb|alt=musical score]]
Rushton suggests that "Berlioz's way is neither architectural nor developmental, but illustrative". He judges this to be part of a continuing French musical aesthetic, favouring a "decorative" – rather than the German "architectural" – approach to composition. Abstraction and discursiveness are alien to this tradition, and in operas, and to a large extent in orchestral music, there is little continuous development; instead self-contained numbers or sections are preferred.<ref>Rushton (1983), pp. 259–261</ref>

Berlioz's compositional techniques have been strongly criticised and equally strongly defended.<ref>Cairns (1963), pp. 548 and 550</ref><ref name=sw119/> It is common ground for critics and defenders that his approach to harmony and musical structure conforms to no established rules; his detractors ascribe this to ignorance, and his proponents to independent-minded adventurousness.<ref name=rosen>[[Charles Rosen|Rosen, Charles]]. [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/04/26/battle-over-berlioz/ "Battle over Berlioz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133705/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/04/26/battle-over-berlioz/ |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''New York Review of Books'', 26 April 1984. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref><ref>Rushton (1983), p. 182</ref> His approach to rhythm caused perplexity to conservatively-inclined contemporaries; he hated the ''phrase carrée'' – the unvaried four- or eight-bar phrase – and introduced new varieties of rhythm to his music. He explained his practice in an 1837 article: accenting weak beats at the expense of the strong, alternating triple and duple groups of notes and using unexpected rhythmic themes independent of the main melody.<ref>Holoman (1989), p. 169; and Rushton (1983) pp. 127–128</ref> Macdonald writes that Berlioz was a natural melodist, but that his rhythmic sense led him away from regular phrase lengths; he "spoke naturally in a kind of flexible musical prose, with surprise and contour important elements".<ref name=grove/>

Berlioz's approach to harmony and counterpoint was idiosyncratic, and has provoked adverse criticism. [[Pierre Boulez]] commented, "There are awkward harmonies in Berlioz that make one scream".<ref>Rosen (1998), p. 544</ref> In Rushton's analysis, most of Berlioz's [[melody|melodies]] have "clear tonal and harmonic implications" but the composer sometimes chose not to harmonise accordingly. Rushton observes that Berlioz's preference for irregular rhythm subverts conventional harmony: "Classic and romantic melody usually implies harmonic motion of some consistency and smoothness; Berlioz's aspiration to musical prose tends to resist such consistency."<ref name=r145>Rushton (1983), p. 145</ref> The pianist and musical analyst [[Charles Rosen]] has written that Berlioz often sets the climax of his melodies in relief with the most emphatic chord a [[Triad (music)|triad]] in [[Inversion (music)#Chords|root position]], and often a [[Chord (music)|tonic chord]] where the melody leads the listener to expect a [[Dominant (music)|dominant]]. He gives as an example the second phrase of the main theme – the ''[[Leitmotif|idée fixe]]'' – of the ''Symphonie fantastique'', "famous for its shock to classical sensibilities", in which the melody implies a dominant at its climax resolved by a [[Tonic (music)|tonic]], but in which Berlioz anticipates the resolution by putting a tonic under the climactic note.<ref name=rosen/>{{refn|Rosen comments that Berlioz "has his cake and eats it, too, as the sense of the dominant is so strong that it lasts through the substituted tonic, which gives a brightness to the climactic note that would make the 'right' harmonization seem impossibly bland."<ref name=rosen/>|group= n}}

[[File:Berlioz - cordes col legno.PNG|thumb|left|upright=2.5|alt=orchestral score of 8 bars or measures, with rapidly repeated notes underneath a melodic line|Berlioz's use of [[col legno]] strings in the ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]'': the players tap their strings with the wooden backs of their bows]]

Even among those unsympathetic to his music, few deny that Berlioz was a master of [[orchestration]].<ref>Macdonald (1969), p. 255</ref> [[Richard Strauss]] wrote that Berlioz invented the modern orchestra.{{refn|Strauss's phrase "inventor of the modern orchestra" was used by the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] for a section of its 2003–2004 exhibition "Berlioz: la voix du romantisme".<ref>[http://expositions.bnf.fr/berlioz/expo/salle4/index.htm "L'Inventeur de l'orchestre moderne"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202184844/http://expositions.bnf.fr/berlioz/expo/salle4/index.htm |date=2 February 2016 }} and [http://editions.bnf.fr/berlioz-la-voix-du-romantisme ""Berlioz: la voix du romantisme"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011134212/http://editions.bnf.fr/berlioz-la-voix-du-romantisme |date=11 October 2018 }}, Bibliothèque nationale de France 2013</ref>|group= n}} Some of those who recognise Berlioz's mastery of orchestration nonetheless dislike a few of his more extreme effects. The [[pedal point]] for trombones in the "Hostias" section of the Requiem is often cited; some musicians such as [[Gordon Jacob]] have found the effect unpleasant. Macdonald has questioned Berlioz's fondness for divided cellos and basses in dense, low chords, but he emphasises that such contentious points are rare compared with "the felicities and masterstrokes" abounding in the scores.<ref>Macdonald (1969), pp. 256–257</ref> Berlioz took instruments hitherto used for special purposes and introduced them into his regular orchestra: Macdonald mentions the harp, the [[cor anglais]], the [[bass clarinet]] and the [[trumpet|valve trumpet]]. Among the characteristic touches in Berlioz's orchestration singled out by Macdonald are the wind "chattering on repeated notes" for brilliance, or being used to add "sombre colour" to Romeo's arrival at the Capulets' vault, and the "Chœur d'ombres" in ''Lélio''. Of Berlioz's brass he writes:

{{quote|Brass can be solemn or brazen; the "Marche au supplice" in the ''Symphonie fantastique'' is a defiantly modern use of brass. Trombones introduce Mephistopheles with three flashing chords or support the gloomy doubts of Narbal in ''Les Troyens''. With a hiss of cymbals, pianissimo, they mark the entry of the Cardinal in ''Benvenuto Cellini'' and the blessing of little Astyanax by Priam in ''Les Troyens''.<ref name=grove/>}}

===Symphonies===
Berlioz wrote four large-scale works he called symphonies, but his conception of the genre differed greatly from the classical pattern of the German tradition. With rare exceptions, such as Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth]], a symphony was taken to be a large‐scale wholly orchestral work, usually in four movements, using [[sonata form]] in the first movement and sometimes in others.<ref name=symph>[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Kennedy, Michael]], and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-8883 "Symphony"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133604/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-8883 |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2018. {{subscription}}</ref> Some pictorial touches were included in symphonies by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and others, but the symphony was not customarily used to recount a narrative.<ref name=symph/>

[[File:Idee fixe.PNG|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=musical score showing long phrase, covering 41 bars or measures|''Idée fixe'' theme, ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]'']]
[[File:Hector Berlioz Symphonie fantastique 2nd movement excerpt.mp3|thumb|''Symphonie fantastique'', second movement (excerpt)]]

All four of Berlioz's symphonies differ from the contemporary norm. The first, the ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]'' (1830), is purely orchestral, and the opening movement is broadly in sonata form,<ref>Rushton (1983), pp. 182 and 190–191</ref>{{refn|Holoman does not entirely agree with this analysis, finding the first movement "scarcely a sonata at all, but rather a simpler arch, with the 'false' return at [bars] 238–239 as its keystone".<ref>Holoman (1989), p. 103</ref>|group= n}} but the work tells a story, graphically and specifically.<ref>Service, Tom. [https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/aug/19/symphony-guide-hector-berliozs-symphonie-fantastique "Symphony guide: Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011172938/https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/aug/19/symphony-guide-hector-berliozs-symphonie-fantastique |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Guardian'', 19 August 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref> The recurring ''idée fixe'' theme is the composer's idealised (and in the last movement caricatured) portrait of Harriet Smithson.<ref>Cairns (1999), p. 559; and Holoman (1989), p. 107</ref> Schumann wrote of the work that despite its apparent formlessness, "there is an inherent symmetrical order corresponding to the great dimensions of the work, and this besides the inner connexions of thought",<ref name=quote>''Quoted'' in Cairns (1966), p. 209</ref> and in the 20th century [[Constant Lambert]] wrote, "Formally speaking it is among the finest of 19th-century symphonies".<ref name=quote/> The work has always been among Berlioz's most popular.<ref>Macdonald (1969), p. 30</ref>

''[[Harold en Italie|Harold in Italy]]'', despite its subtitle "Symphony in four parts with viola principal", is described by the musicologist Mark Evan Bonds as a work traditionally seen as lacking any direct historical antecedent, "a hybrid of symphony and concerto that owes little or nothing to the earlier, lighter genre of the [[Sinfonia concertante|symphonie concertante]]".<ref>Bonds, p. 417</ref> In the 20th century critical opinion varied about the work, even among those well-disposed to Berlioz. [[Felix Weingartner]], an early 20th-century champion of the composer, wrote in 1904 that it did not reach the level of the ''Symphonie fantastique'';<ref>Weingartner, p. 67</ref> fifty years later [[Edward Sackville-West]] and [[Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic)|Desmond Shawe-Taylor]] found it "romantic and picturesque&nbsp;... Berlioz at his best".<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 121</ref> In the 21st century Bonds ranks it among the greatest works of its kind in the 19th century.<ref>Bonds, p. 408</ref>

The "Dramatic Symphony" with chorus, ''[[Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz)|Roméo et Juliette]]'' (1839), is still further from the traditional symphonic model. The episodes of Shakespeare's drama are represented in orchestral music, interspersed with expository and narrative sections for voices.<ref>Rushton (2001), p. 42</ref> Among Berlioz's admirers the work divides opinion. Weingartner called it "a style-less mixture of different forms; not quite oratorio, not quite opera, not quite symphony – fragments of all three, and nothing perfect".<ref>Weingartner, p. 68</ref> Countering accusations of lack of unity in this and other Berlioz works, [[Emmanuel Chabrier]] replied in a single emphatic word.{{refn|"Ça manque d'unité, vous répond-on! – Moi je réponds: 'Merde!'"<ref>Chabrier, Emmanuel. Letter of 17 July 1887, ''quoted'' in Rushton (1983), p. 28</ref>|group= n}} Cairns regards the work as symphonic, albeit "a bold extension" of the genre, but he notes that other Berliozians including [[Wilfrid Mellers]] view it as "a curious, not entirely convincing compromise between symphonic and operatic techniques".<ref>Cairns (1966), pp. 223–224</ref> Rushton comments that "pronounced unity" is not among the virtues of the work, but he argues that to close one's mind on that account is to miss all that the music has to give.<ref>Rushton (1983), p. 262</ref>

The last of the four symphonies is the ''[[Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale|Symphonie funebre et triomphale]]'', for giant brass and woodwind band (1840), with string parts added later, together with optional chorus. The structure is more conventional than the instrumentation: the first movement is in sonata form, but there are only two other movements, and Berlioz did not adhere to the traditional relationship between the various keys of the piece.<ref name=r256>Rushton (1983), p. 256</ref>{{refn|The prevailing custom would be to end the work in the key in which if began, but the symphony starts in F and ends in B-flat.<ref name=r256/>|group= n}} Wagner called the symphony "popular in the most ideal sense&nbsp;... every urchin in a blue blouse would thoroughly understand it".<ref>''Quoted'' in Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 121</ref>

===Operas===
[[File:Les-troyens-à-Carthage-1892.jpg|thumb|''[[Les Troyens|Les Troyens à Carthage]]'' (the second part of ''Les Troyens'') at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique-Châtelet, 1892|alt=Theatre poster showing figures in classical dress on a beach with a seascape in the background and a burning city in the foreground]]

None of Berlioz's three completed operas were written to commission, and theatre managers were not enthusiastic about staging them. Cairns writes that unlike Meyerbeer, who was rich, influential, and deferred to by opera managements, Berlioz was "an opera composer on sufferance, one who composed on borrowed time paid for with money that was not his but lent by a wealthy friend".<ref>Cairns (1999), p. 111</ref>

The three operas contrast strongly with one another. The first, ''[[Benvenuto Cellini (opera)|Benvenuto Cellini]]'' (1838), inspired by the memoirs of [[Benvenuto Cellini|the Florentine sculptor]], is an [[opera semiseria]], seldom staged until the 21st century, when there have been signs of a revival in its fortunes, with its first production at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] (2003) and a co-production by the [[English National Opera]] and the [[Opéra national de Paris]] (2014), but it remains the least often produced of the three operas.<ref>[http://operabase.com/visual.cgi?lang=en&is=opera&by=Berlioz "Statistics: Works by Berlioz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133602/http://operabase.com/visual.cgi?lang=en&is=opera&by=Berlioz |date=11 October 2018 }}, Operabase. Retrieved 9 October 2018</ref> In 2008, the music critic Michael Quinn called it "an opera overflowing in every way, with musical gold bursting from each curve and crevice&nbsp;... a score of continually stupendous brilliance and invention" but agreed with the general view of the libretto: "incoherent&nbsp;... episodic, too epic to be comedy, too ironic for tragedy".<ref>Quinn, Michael. [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/berlioz-benvenuto-cellini "Berlioz, Benvenuto Cellini"], Gramophone, 2008 . Retrieved 19 October 2018. {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133835/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/berlioz-benvenuto-cellini |date=11 October 2018 }}</ref> Berlioz welcomed Liszt's help in revising the work, streamlining the confusing plot; for his other two operas he wrote his own libretti.<ref>O'Neal (2018), p. 235</ref>

The epic ''[[Les Troyens]]'' (1858) is described by the musical scholar [[James Haar]] as "incontestably Berlioz's masterpiece",<ref>Haar, p. 92</ref> a view shared by many other writers.{{refn|Others who describe the work as "Berlioz's masterpiece" include [[Rupert Christiansen]],<ref>Christiansen, Rupert. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3601350/Prom-47-Music-making-of-the-highest-order.html "Prom 47: Music-making of the highest order"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229084844/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3601350/Prom-47-Music-making-of-the-highest-order.html |date=29 February 2016 }}, ''The Telegraph'', 26 August 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref> [[Donald Jay Grout]],<ref>Grout and Williams, p. 9</ref> [[George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood|Lord Harewood]],<ref>Harewood, p. 54</ref> [[D. Kern Holoman]],<ref>Holoman (2000), p. 174</ref> [[Roger Parker]]<ref>Parker, p. 152</ref> and [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]].<ref name=odm>Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-1008 "Berlioz, Louis Hector"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133631/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-1008 |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2018. {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} Berlioz based the text on [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', depicting the fall of [[Troy]] and subsequent travels of the hero. Holoman describes the poetry of the libretto as old fashioned for its day, but effective and at times beautiful.<ref name=grovetroyens/> The opera consists of a series of self-contained numbers, but they form a continuous narrative, with the orchestra playing a vital part in expounding and commenting on the action. Although the work plays for five hours (including intervals) it is no longer the normal practice to present it across two evenings. ''Les Troyens'', in Holoman's view, embodies the composer's artistic creed: the union of music and poetry holds "incomparably greater power than either art alone".<ref name=grovetroyens/>

The last of Berlioz's operas is the Shakespearean comedy ''[[Béatrice et Bénédict]]'' (1862), written, the composer said, as a relaxation after his efforts with ''Les Troyens''. He described it as "a caprice written with the point of a needle".<ref name=c2012/> His libretto, based on ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', omits Shakespeare's darker sub-plots and replaces the clowns [[Dogberry]] and Verges with an invention of his own, the tiresome and pompous music master Somarone.<ref>Rushton (1982–1983), pp. 106 and 108</ref> The action focuses on the sparring between the two leading characters, but the score contains some gentler music, such as the nocturne-duet "Nuit paisible et sereine", the beauty of which, Cairns suggests, matches or surpasses the love music in ''Roméo'' or ''Les Troyens''.<ref>Cairns, David. [http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-february-1960/16/opera "Opera: The Berlioz Question"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011214455/http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-february-1960/16/opera |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Spectator'', 19 February 1960, p. 16. Retrieved 18 October 2018.</ref> Cairns writes that ''Béatrice et Bénédict'' "has wit and grace and lightness of touch. It accepts life as it is. The opera is a divertissement, not a grand statement".<ref name=c2012>Cairns, David. [https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15285_GBDGQ1400401 "Béatrice et Bénédict"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133611/https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15285_GBDGQ1400401 |date=11 October 2018 }}, Hyperion Records, 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref>

''[[La Damnation de Faust]]'', although not written for the theatre, is sometimes staged as an opera.<ref>Haar, p. 89</ref>

===Choral===
[[File:Berlioz-requiem-manuscript-dies-irae.png|thumb|upright=1.25|alt=handwritten sheet of music|Berlioz's manuscript of the [[Requiem (Berlioz)|Requiem]], showing the eight pairs of [[timpani]] in the Dies irae]]
Berlioz gained a reputation, only partly justified, for liking gigantic orchestral and choral forces. In France there was a tradition of open-air performance, dating from the [[French Revolution|Revolution]], calling for larger ensembles than were needed in the concert hall.<ref>Boyd, p. 235</ref> Among the generation of French composers ahead of him, [[Luigi Cherubini|Cherubini]], Méhul, [[François-Joseph Gossec|Gossec]] and Berlioz's teacher Le Sueur all wrote for huge forces on occasion, and in the Requiem and to a lesser degree the Te Deum Berlioz follows them, in his own manner.<ref name=anderson/> The Requiem calls for sixteen [[timpani]], quadruple woodwind and twelve horns, but the moments when the full orchestral sound is unleashed are few – the [[Dies irae]] is one such – and most of the Requiem is notable for its restraint.<ref name=anderson>Anderson, Martin. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-proms-raises-the-titantic-710122.html "The Proms raises the titanic"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011140357/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-proms-raises-the-titantic-710122.html |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Independent'', 21 July 2000. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref> The orchestra does not play at all in the "Quaerens me" section, and what Cairns calls "the apocalyptic armoury" is reserved for special moments of colour and emphasis: "its purpose is not merely spectacular but architectural, to clarify the musical structure and open up multiple perspectives."<ref>Cairns, David (2013). Notes to LSO Live CD set LSO0729D {{oclc|874720250}}</ref>

What Macdonald calls Berlioz's monumental manner is more prominent in the ''Te Deum'', composed in 1849 and first heard in 1855, when it was given in connection with the [[Exposition Universelle (1855)|Exposition Universelle]]. By that time the composer had added to its two choruses a part for massed children's voices, inspired by hearing a choir of 6,500 children singing in [[St Paul's Cathedral]] during his London trip in 1851.<ref name=grove/> A [[cantata]] for double chorus and large orchestra in honour of [[Napoleon III]], ''L'Impériale'', described by Berlioz as "en style énorme", was played several times at the 1855 exhibition, but has subsequently remained a rarity.<ref>Rushton (2008), p. 51</ref>

''La Damnation de Faust'', though conceived as a work for the concert hall, did not achieve success in France until it was staged as an opera long after the composer's death. Within a year of [[Raoul Gunsbourg]]'s production of the piece at [[Monte Carlo]] in 1893 the work was presented as an opera in Italy, Germany, Britain, Russia and the US.<ref>Holoman, D. Kern. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O002474"Damnation de Faust, La ('The Damnation of Faust')"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press 2002. Retrieved 18 October 2018. {{subscription}}</ref> The many elements of the work vary from the robust "Hungarian March" near the beginning to the delicate "Dance of the Sylphs", the frenetic "Ride to the Abyss", Méphistophélès' suave and seductive "Song of the Devil", and Brander's "Song of a Rat", a requiem for a dead rodent.<ref>[https://www.mso.com.au/media-centre/news/2015/02/a-listener-s-guide-to-berlioz-s-the-damnation-of-faust/ "A listener's guide to Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133701/https://www.mso.com.au/media-centre/news/2015/02/a-listener-s-guide-to-berlioz-s-the-damnation-of-faust/ |date=11 October 2018 }}, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, 24 February 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref>

''L'Enfance du Christ'' (1850–1854) follows the pattern of ''La Damnation de Faust'' in mixing dramatic action and philosophic reflection. Berlioz, after a brief youthful religious spell, was a lifelong agnostic,<ref>Cairns (2000), pp. 94 and 552</ref> but he was not hostile to the Roman Catholic church,<ref>Berlioz, p. 31</ref> and Macdonald calls the "serenely contemplative" end of the work "the nearest Berlioz ever came to a devoutly Christian mode of expression".<ref name=grove/>

===Mélodies===
Berlioz wrote songs throughout his career, but not prolifically. His best-known work in the genre is the song cycle ''[[Les Nuits d'été]]'', a group of six songs, originally for voice and piano but now usually heard in its later orchestrated form. He suppressed some of his early songs, and his last publication, in 1865, was the ''33 [[Mélodie]]s'', collecting into one volume all his songs that he chose to preserve. Some of them, such as "Hélène" and "Sara la baigneuse", exist in versions for four voices with accompaniment, and there are others for two or three voices. Berlioz later orchestrated some of the songs originally written with piano accompaniment, and some, such as "Zaïde" and "Le Chasseur danois" were written with alternative piano or orchestral parts.<ref name=grove/> "La Captive", to words by [[Victor Hugo]], exists in six different versions.{{refn|"La captive" was so popular during the composer's lifetime that he frequently revised it to meet the particular requirements of a performance. The song developed from what the conductor and academic [[Melinda O'Neal]] describes as "a beguiling strophic tune" with guitar or piano accompaniment to "a miniature tone poem with five varied strophes and a coda, significantly greater in length and dimension".<ref>O'Neal (2002), p. 22</ref>|group= n}} In its final version (1849) it was described by the Berlioz scholar Tom S. Wotton as like "a miniature symphonic poem".<ref>Rushton (2001), p. 53</ref> The first version, written at the Villa Medici, had been in fairly regular rhythm, but for his revision Berlioz made the strophic outline less clear-cut, and added optional orchestral parts for the last stanza, which brings the song to a quiet close.<ref>Rushton (2001), pp. 53–54; and Holoman (1898), p. 242</ref>

The songs remain on the whole among the least known of Berlioz's works, and [[John Warrack]] suggests that Schumann identified why this might be so: the shape of the melodies is, as usual with Berlioz, not straightforward, and to those used to the regular four-bar phrases of French (or German) song this is an obstacle to appreciation. Warrack also comments that the piano parts, though not lacking in harmonic interest, are discernibly written by a non-pianist. Despite that, Warrack considers up to a dozen songs from the ''33 Mélodies'' well worth exploring – "Among them are some masterpieces."<ref>Warrack, pp. 252 and 254</ref>

===Prose===
{{main|Hector Berlioz as critic and author}}
Berlioz's literary output was considerable and mostly consists of music criticism. Some was collected and published in book form. His ''[[Treatise on Instrumentation]]'' (1844) began as a series of articles and remained a standard work on orchestration throughout the 19th century; when Richard Strauss was commissioned to revise it in 1905 he added new material but did not change Berlioz's original text.<ref>Lockspeiser, pp. 37–38</ref> The revised form remained widely used well into the 20th century; a new English translation was published in 1948.<ref>Lockspeiser, pp. 42 and 44</ref>

Other selections from Berlioz's press columns were published in ''Les Soirées de l'orchestre'' (Evenings with the Orchestra, 1852), ''Les Grotesques de la musique'' (1859) and ''À travers chants'' (Through Songs, 1862). His ''Mémoires'' were published posthumously in 1870. Macdonald comments that there are few facets of musical practice of the time untouched in Berlioz's ''[[feuilletons]]''. He professed to dislike writing his press pieces, and they undoubtedly took up time that he would have preferred to spend writing music. His excellence as a witty and perceptive critic may have worked to his disadvantage in another way: he became so well known to the French public in that capacity that his stature as a composer became correspondingly more difficult to establish.<ref name=grove/>