The Dramatic Symphony : Issues and Explorations from Berlioz to Liszt

In the long decade of 1839-1851, we meet symphonies of many names-dramatic symphonies, characteristic symphonies, program symphonies, poetic symphonies, oriental symphonies, symphony-cantatas, symphonic odes, concert dramas, hunting symphonies, historical symphonies, concert ballades, choral symphonies, and others, a fair number of which are hybrid types using choral forces to combine purely musical elements with subject matter that is extra-musical.

I have chosen to call this type of symphony the dramatic symphony not simply because Berlioz gave that name to his Romeo et Juliette but because dramatic symphony suggests the active nature of the music a style in which the ultimate goal is not determined solely by musical considerations but by those and by concurrent drama. . . . "It could be argued that the symphony was by its very nature contrasting movements, competing orchestral motives, transitional passages, the development process?already on a dramatic path from its very inception.

The chronicle here presented may appear to some therefore as the fulfilling of the symphony's destiny; to others as a losing of the way.

I have tried, as much as possible, to avoid such predications and pre-established value judgments in order to present an account of events and the various challenges and responses of contemporaries, a reception history.