But it is in his treatment of his instrument that Berlioz seems most
closely akin to the newest musicians. For he was the first to permit the
orchestra to dictate music to him. There had, no doubt, existed skilful
and sensitive orchestrators before him, men who were deeply aware of the
nature of their tools, men who, like Mozart, could scarcely repress
their tears at the sound of a favorite instrument, and wrote marvelously
for flutes and horns and oboes and all the components of their bands.
But matched with his, their knowledge of the instrument was patently
relative. For, with them, music had on the whole a general timbre.
Phrases which they assigned, say, to violins or flutes can be assigned
to other instruments without doing the composition utter damage. But in
the works of Berlioz music and instruments are inseparable. One cannot
at all rearrange his orchestration. Though the phrases that he has
written for bassoon or clarinet might imaginably be executed by other
instruments, the music would perish utterly in the substitution. What
instrument but the viola could appreciate the famous "Harold" theme? For
just as in a painting of Cezanne's the form is inseparable from the
color, is, indeed, one with it, so, too, in the works of Berlioz and the
moderns the form is part of the sensuous quality of the band.
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