Editing Hector Berlioz (section)

===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/>