1835, Berlioz was engaged to succeed M. Castil-Blaze, as musical critic in the Journal de Débats, which office he still holds, and his spirited writing in this publication distinguishes him scarcely less than does his individuality as an artist. After the siege and taking of Constantine, Count Gasparin, minister of the interior, engaged Berlioz to write his "Messe des Morts," to be performed at the obsequies of General Danremont, and the officers and soldiers killed in that event, which solemnity was celebrated at the church of the Invalides, December 5, 1837. His next important production was the opera of "Benvenuto Cellini," which was given at the Académie Royale with such opposition as to compel its immediate withdrawal, and it was reproduced after a few months with no better fortune. This work has had more success in some of the principal towns of Germany; but, when it was performed in 1853, under the composer's direction, at the Royal Italian opera in London, it was so ill received that it could not be repeated. The "Carnaval Romain," one of the most admired instrumental compositions of Berlioz, is the overture to the second act of this opera, and it has often been played in Paris with applause as great as the disfavour that greeted the entire work from which it is extracted. The grand ceremony of the inauguration of the Colonne de Juillet in 1839, gave occasion for a series of most extensive musical performances under Berlioz's direction, at which he produced his "Apotheose," and his "Symphonie Funébre," composed in honour of the victims of the Revolution of 1830. These concerts were attended by an audience of ten thousand, and the excitement of the moment enhanced not a little the interest of the music, which, aided by the multitudinous scale of its execution, created an enthusiasm that has not been forgotten. On the 24th of November in the same year, the symphony of "Roméo et Julliette" (a composition for orchestra, solo voices, and chorus) was first performed. This remarkable work is a further expression of the train of feelings depicted in the "Symphonie Fantastique" and its sequel, it having been originally suggested by a representation of Shakspeare's tragedy, the heroine of which had now become the wife of the composer. In this year also he published his treatise on instrumentation, a work to which his speciality as a composer—mainly consisting as this does in his care for orchestral colouring—gives particular interest. In 1841 Berlioz made a tour in the north of Germany, giving concerts of his music in all the important cities. At Leipzig he again met with Mendelssohn, then conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts, who treated him with the courteous cordiality with which he received every one of artistic pretensions; on this occasion, at the request of Berlioz, the two conductors exchanged batons, each promising to preserve the other's gift as a pledge of friendship and esteem. He then visited the principal towns of the south of France, and afterwards proceeded to Vienna, and was everywhere received with consideration, if not dismissed with profit. In Austria he composed the "Damnation de Faust," a dramatic cantata founded on the national German legend, which he subsequently produced at the Opera Comique.
Berlioz had, after his return to Paris, given a series of concerts monstres at the cirque in the Champs Elysées, by which he had been a pecuniary loser, and the two performances of his new cantata scarcely yielded the amount of their expenses. Having thus little interest to retain him in Paris, he now undertook a tour in Russia, the success of which was more lucrative than anything he had yet experienced. He was much honoured both at St. Petersburg and Moscow; at the latter he received an invitation from the king of Prussia to visit Berlin, and produce his "Faust" there. This work had already been performed in Germany, where it had excited much interest, which was still increased by the presence of the author, and the honours paid to him at court equalled the acknowledgments he received from the artistic world. When M. Jullien opened Drury Lane theatre at Christmas, 1847, for the performance of English operas, Berlioz was engaged as conductor; his reputation in this capacity was very great, but it was founded on his practice in the concertroom, where he had chiefly directed the performance of his own compositions, and rarely that of solo singers; his want of experience in the theatre and of sympathy with the style of music, added to his ignorance of the language, were the natural causes of his unfitness for an office which a person of more discretion would scarcely have undertaken. During this his first visit to London, his "Harold" and some portions of his "Faust" were performed at one of the Philharmonic concerts under his own superintendence, and they were better understood than the overture to his opera had been, when, seven years earlier, it was given by the same society, being the first of his works heard in England. On his return to Paris, Berlioz wrote the "Fuite en Egypte," which he produced as a composition of Pierre Ducré, a pretended composer of the 17th century. It is said that many critics perceived beauties in this work of supposed antiquity, which they would never have admitted in a production of the living Berlioz; and full of admiration, busied themselves with researches for other emanations from the same unheard of genius. The success of the work being decided, the author dropped his pseudonyme, and declared himself to be the only Pierre Ducré when the eulogies that had been pronounced could not be retracted. His second visit to London was in 1851, when he was engaged to conduct the New Philharmonic concerts; he came again the year following, invited by the Philharmonic Society to direct some of his works, and in 1853 once more visited London. The last expression of his romantic love is rendered in "Meditations Religieuses," a work which Berlioz wrote on the death of his wife; it consists of three parts, which are thus entitled, "Trestia," for six voices, with accompaniment of violin, violoncello, and pianoforte; "La Mort d'Ophelie ballade;" and "Marche Funébre."
He now extended the "Fuite en Egypte," into the trilogy, "L'enfance du Christ," preceding the original portion by the "Songe d'Herode," and concluding the work with "L'arrive a Sais;" thus completed, it was first performed at the Salle Herz, December 12, 1854. His next production was the "Te Deum," for three choruses and orchestra, which was first performed at the church of St. Eustache by a band of 150, and a chorus of 800, April 30, 1855. On the 15th of November following, on the occasion of the distribution of prizes at the Palais de l'industrie Universelle, Berlioz paid his homage to the reigning sovereign by the production of his cantata "L'Imperiale," which was executed by 1200 performers. On the death of Adolphe Adam in 1856, Berlioz was chosen to fill the place thus rendered vacant in the membership of the institut, the extremely wide range of the honourable distinction being peculiarly exemplified in the remotely opposite artistic character of these two men. Besides the works already mentioned, Berlioz has produced the following—overtures, "Le Roi Lear" and "Le Corsaire"; "Le Cinq Mai," a cantata on the death of Napoleon; "Vox Populi" two choruses, "La Menace des France" and "L'Hymne à la France;" "Rêverie et Caprice," for the violin, written for Artot; "Irlande," "Feuillets d'album," "Die Sommernachte;" "Sara la Baigneuses," "La Captive," and "Fleurs des Landes," each a collection of vocal pieces. In addition to his contributions to the Débats, he is also the author of two literary works—"Voyage en Allemagne et en Italie;" and "Les Soirees de l'orchestre,—which are replete with artistic enthusiasm and sprightly satire. He is now engaged upon a five-act opera for the acadèmie, of which, as of the trilogy, he writes both the text and the music. Berlioz regards music in the highest artistic sense, and thus a deep earnestness of purpose distinguishes all he has produced. He appears to consider it as necessarily the medium of a defined expression; but it is perhaps, less to this view of the appropriation of the art, that the peculiarity may be attributed of what he writes, than to a natural incapacity of melodic invention, the late commencement of his technical studies and their probable incompleteness, and, in some degree, to his inability to play his compositions upon any instrument. Contemporary criticism of what is so entirely new, is equally liable to be blinded by intolerance or by enthusiasm; they who examine it with implicit faith in the validity of established principles, are not more likely to do injustice to its merits, than are they liable to render to its failings whose mania for originality (as they misname rejection of precedent), leads them to esteem every infraction of the revered rules of art, as an excellence. It is posterity alone that can truly determine how far and in what rank this very remarkable man is to be classed as a musician.—G. A. M.
BERMUDO. This name was borne by three kings of Asturias and Leon, in the line of the renowned Pelayo:—Bermudo I., called to the throne a.d. 788 instead of Alphonso II., to whom, as the rightful heir, he afterwards resigned it; Bermudo II., who, in alliance with Navarre and Castile, conquered Almanzor on the plains of Osma in 998; and Bermudo III., grandson of the preceding, who fell in battle against the combined forces of Castile and Navarre in 1037, leaving the sceptre of Pelayo to the ascendant house of Sancho El Mayor.—W. B.
