Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 292
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-0-8108-8606-3 • Hardback • February 2018 • $51.00 • (£39.00)
978-0-8108-8607-0 • eBook • February 2018 • $48.50 • (£37.00)
Melinda P. O'Neal is a choral-orchestral conductor and professor of music at Dartmouth College. Her fascination with the music of Berlioz began when rehearsing the final mystical chorus of L’enfance du Christ in graduate school. Berlioz has been the subject of O’Neal’s teaching and writing, and she has prepared choruses and conducted in performance most of his vocal-instrumental works. Learn more about O'Neal and explore selected texts and translations referred to in Experiencing Berlioz at www.melindaoneal.net.
Opening Your Imagination: Introduction and Guide
Chapter 1: Songs
Neuf mélodies: La belle voyageuse and Élégie en prose
Les nuits d’étés
La mort d’Ophélie
Le trébuchet: scherzo
La belle Isabeau: conte pendant l’orage
Chapter 2: Music for Chorus
Neuf mélodies: Chant guerrier and Chanson à boire
Sara la baigneuse
Scène héroïque: la révolution grecque
Le cinq mai
Hymne à la France
Chapter 3: Orchestral Music
Symphonie fantastique
Roméo et Juliette
Chapter 4: Extended Choral-Orchestral Works
Messe solennelle
Grande messe des morts (Requiem)
La damnation de Faust
L’enfance du Christ
Chapter 5: Operas
Benvenuto Cellini
Les Troyens
Appendices
A. Song Inventory
B. Choral Music
C. Program of Symphonie fantastique
D. Selected References in Berlioz’s Mémoires
Beautifully written, clearly organized, creatively detailed, and full of information and insight concerning the works of Berlioz being discussed. This volume will be both a helpful guide for the passionate listener and a valuable resource for the performing musician. Highly recommended.
— Joseph Flummerfelt, artistic director emeritus, Westminster Choir College
On first hearing Berlioz’s music, many people report the experience as if they had been seized by the collar and shaken to the roots. If that happens to you, the perfect guide will be Melinda O’Neal’s thoughtful tour through his entire output. For singers especially, this is essential reading.
— Hugh Macdonald, general editor, The New Berlioz Edition, and formerly Avis Blewett Professor of Music at Washington University, St Louis
An engaging and informative exploration of the life, compositional style, and catalog of Hector Berlioz. Elegantly written with refreshing clarity, it is a wonderful resource and will be appreciated by lovers of music, lay and professional. I highly recommend this book!
— Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano and Rudy Professor of Music, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
This guide to Berlioz’s music by an eminent choral conductor puts his vocal work front and center where it belongs, despite his fame as a composer of symphonies. O’Neal’s entertaining, infectiously enthusiastic, perceptive, knowledgeable descriptions will serve listeners and performers alike.
— Katherine Kolb, editor of Berlioz on Music: Selected Criticism (2015)
O'Neal's reader-friendly volume is written for the average listener and contains excellent comments on how to prepare for and how to listen to a live concert. She obviously revels in the stunning sonic brilliance of Berlioz' writing and her love is contagious.
— John Nelson, international conductor