Conductor: The Theory of His Art

by Hector Berlioz

English, French (translation)

Genres: Music

63 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 1902

About the author

Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer, conductor, music critic and author, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation (1844). He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a conductor, he performed several concerts with more than 1,000 musicians. He also composed around 50 songs.

Between 1830 and 1840, Berlioz wrote many of his most popular and enduring works. The foremost of these are the Symphonie fantastique (1830), Harold en Italie (1834), the Grande messe des morts (Requiem) (1837) and Roméo et Juliette (1839). Later operatic works include Benvenuto Cellini and Les Troyens (The Trojans). His autobiography, Memoirs, was completed in 1865.

(Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_B.... Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License:)

Reviews

[Slawka Scarso · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting dissertation on the orchestral conductor. Most of it can be appreciated by the music lover who is especially keen on symphonic music though some parts are rather technical. The only problem with this edition in particular is that the scores mentioned throughout the text are not included in the ebook file so even if you do read music, it is impossible to get an idea of what Berlioz is saying.
Nonetheless, I truly enjoyed the voice and criticism of Berlioz towards the sloppy conductor. It was quite fun.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what I was expecting

But while this wasn't exactly it, this was interesting. What we get is: Common faults of contemporary conductors (ok, was expecting that); precise descriptions of how to conduct different time signatures; and constructive advice, from his own (and others, eg Liszt's) experiences, on how to prepare and rehearse then-contemporary scores. (Probably would, of itself, deserve 4 stars from me. The Kindle version here lacks all the music examples, and the rating is not after all just for the Thing in Itself but for this Fischer edition of it and for the presentation I'm reviewing.)

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike his musical contemporary Wagner's book about conducting which is all about the correct tempi for orchestral works, Berlioz' book is mostly about how the conductor can physically conduct various time signatures. It is a technical book. It would have been nice to know some of his thoughts about interpretation as well.