A Work as abstract as it is
visionary, a symphony as much as an oratorio, La Damnation de Faust raises
some universally philosophical questions out of the deepest recesses of
romantic legend. Berlioz himself, a composer grappling with his work and
haunted by the question of creation, provided La Damnation de Faust with
a score as fascinating as it is demanding.
A visionary score
Even before Wagner, Berlioz had the vision of an invisible theatre. With La
Damnation de Faust, he contemplated a form of art that strived to distance
itself ever further from story-telling, instead placing a powerful – and highly
abstract – faith in humanity ahead of the narration. The composer puts Man at
the centre of his art and not the story. Of course, Marguerite and Faust are
there, but beyond that lies the human desire to control nature, to experience
divinity. This creative side of man naturally corresponds to Berlioz who, just
as in the Symphonie fantastique, identifies with the work’s central figure.
Each part of La Damnation de Faust is a different illustration of this
examination of creation: nature, science, but also pleasure, perfect love and
divinity – which Faust praises in the invocation to nature. In other words,
Berlioz chooses to portray Man in four different ways which he condenses into
the character of Faust. Between Earth, Heaven and Hell, Man passes from the
most primal of needs to the most incandescent of spiritual quests. The subject
in itself is not dramatic, which is why Berlioz sought a different form and why
he subtitled his work A dramatic legend in four parts. This is a vocal symphony
but also a drama—the imaginary vision of a subject too human to be truly
narrated.
A genius of orchestration
Berlioz is to orchestration what Mozart was to melody, Beethoven to form
and Bach to counterpoint. A symphony is something of a visionary work. It is
abstract music. Berlioz launched into the genre with gusto, but not without
questioning its link with the text – most notably through the invention of the
symphonic poem (La Damnation de Faust cultivates some
very strong connections with them: Lelio, and even more so Romeo
and Juliet). In Berlioz's exploration of orchestral sonorities there lies a
desire to play with extremes. The composer is equally at home portraying the
simplicity of nature at the beginning of “La Damnation” as the
martial character of the Hungarian march or the hellish Pandemonium at the
work’s climax– with the four bassoons joined by the ophicleide and the racing
violins marking that headlong rush into the abyss – and in the same work
demonstrating a fluidity and sensitivity in Marguerite’s aria that are reminiscent
of his Nuits d’été cycle. The sul ponticello he
uses to accompany Mephistopheles or the treatment of the Menuet des
follets for three piccolos – truly modern for the times and which must
have unsettled listeners – shows to what extent Berlioz was able to find
complexity hidden in extraordinary simplicity.
Like Beethoven, Berlioz’s vocal compositions had an instrumental character
that made them relatively difficult to sing. The chorus is treated in a rather
complex way whilst corresponding well to the treatment of orchestral voices.
Berlioz gives unprecedented precision to the nuances – in this regard he was
even more “punctilious” than Wagner: he could go as far as using pppp in
the pianissimiwhich was totally new at the time. In fact, Berlioz's
orchestral composition explores the extremes to set the universe reverberating.
As such, the legend of Faust was a natural choice. This genius of orchestration
went on to influence Liszt and Wagner, indeed, Liszt’s Faust Symphony could
not have existed withoutLa Damnation de Faust.
Scenes from Faust
The Faust legend has often been revisited by musicians and, from one
interpretation to another, a comparison of the different visions of Goethe’s
work offers interesting perspectives. Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s
Faust, for example, are a sort of German reflection of La Damnation
de Faust: during the same period, we find a similar type of orchestration,
misunderstood by musicians and public alike. Schumann, like Berlioz, chose
different scenes in the work, hence the explicit title: Scenes from
Goethe’s Faust. While the two works may seem similar it is clear that
two different cultures are at play: The French composer has a highly dramatic
vision of things, whereas with Schumann, it is the humanist aspect that stands
out—and that is much closer to the second part of Goethe’s Faust.
For Schumann, redemption is more important than in the
French vision, which by nature has more of a Latin and Catholic sensibility.
For Schumann, Mephistopheles is a very dark, sombre character, whereas Berlioz
and Boito both set aside some comic scenes for the flamboyant character.
Schumann refuses to make us laugh. In the 20th century, Busoni
manages to bring together all of these aspects in his own Doktor Faust. With
Gounod, on the other hand, the central subject is Marguerite. In this case it
is less about questioning human existence than recounting a story. Conversely,
with Berlioz, when Faust invokes nature at the end of the work, it is the
result of an exploration of the greater universe, as opposed to a focus on
creation that his first words implied. It is no longer a simple, immediately
accessible nature, but a much larger, more profound spiritual quest in which
the character of Marguerite is finally forgotten.
Just as the invocation of this “immense nature” changes as the character
develops, La Damnation de Faust leads the listener
forward in a subtle and unremitting crescendo, towards an ever-greater unity.
The end result brings sense to the abstraction of a work composed of disparate
scenes which through this inherent complexity acquires a quality and a depth
which in my view makes it one of Berlioz’s most interesting.
https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/magazine/a-visionary-composer
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