ove to attain a more intimate connection between
instrumental music and poetry in the portrayal of intense passions, and
the suggestion of well-defined dramatic situations. In spite of the fact
that he frequently overshot his mark, it does not make his works one
whit less astonishing. An uncompromising champion of what has been
dubbed "programme" music, he thought it legitimate to force the
imagination of the hearer to dwell on exterior scenes during the
progress of the music, and to distress the mind in its attempt to find
an exact relation between the text and the music. The most perfect
specimens of the works of Berlioz, however, are those in which the music
speaks for itself, such as the "Scene aux Champs," and the "Marche au
Supplice," in the "Symphonie Fantastique," the "Marche des Pelerins," in
"Harold"; the overtures to "King Lear," "Benvenuto Cellini," "Carnaval
Romain," "Le Corsaire," "Les Francs Juges," etc.

As a master of the orchestra, no one has been the equal of Berlioz in
the whole history of music, not even Beethoven or Wagner. He treats the
orchestra with the absolute daring and mastery exercised by Paganini
over the violin, and by Liszt over the piano. No one has showed so deep
an insight into the individuality of each instrument, its resources, the
extent to which its capabilities could be carried. Between the phrase
and the instrument, or group of instruments, the equality is perfect;
and independent of this power, made up equally of instinct and
knowledge, this composer shows a sense of orchestral color in combining
single instruments so as to form groups, or in the combination of
several separate groups of instruments by which he has produced the most
novel and beautiful effects--effects not found in other composers.
The originality and variety of his rhythms, the perfection of his
instrumentation, have never been disputed even by his opponents. In many
of his works, especially those of a religious character, there is a
Cyclopean bigness of instrumental means used, entirely beyond parallel
in art. Like the Titans of old, he would scale the very heavens in
his daring. In one of his works he does not hesitate to use three
orchestras, three choruses (all of full dimensions), four organs, and
a triple quartet. The conceptions of Berlioz were so grandiose that he
sometimes disdained detail, and the result was that more than one of his
compositions have rugged grandeur at the expense of symmetry and bal