It
managed only to express itself partially, fragmentarily, in various
transformations, till, by change, it found in the idea of the Mass for
the Dead its fitting opportunity. Still, it was never entirely absent
from the art of Berlioz, and in the great clear sense of it gained in
the "Requiem" we can perceive its various and ever-present
substantiations, from the very beginning of his career.
It is in the overture to "King Lear" already, in that noble and gracious
introduction. From the very beginning, Berlioz revealed himself a proud
and aristocratic spirit. Even in his most helpless moments, he is always
noble. He shows himself possessed of a hatred for all that is unjust and
ungirt and vulgar. There is always a largeness and gravity and chastity
in his gesture. The coldness is most often simply the apparent coldness
of restraint; the baldness, the laconism of a spirit that abhorred
loose, ungainly manners of speech. Even the frenetic and orgiastic
finales of the "Harold" and "Fantastic" symphonies are tempered by an
athletic steeliness and irony, are pervaded, after all, by the good dry
light of the intellect. The greater portion of the "Harold" is
obviously, in its coolness and neatness and lightness, the work of one
who was unwilling to dishevel himself in the cause of expression, who
outlined his sensations reticently rather than effusively, and stood
always a little apart.
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