The Resurrexit from Hector Berlioz's Messe solennelle (1825): A Case Study in Self-Borrowing Page: 53
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53
in this practice.113 Macdonald also states that the composer tended to "play down, by
omission rather than denial, the role of earlier works in his finished compositions."114
Berlioz made several references in his correspondence and in the Mimoires to the most
obvious examples of borrowing. There were many more instances, however, which he
did not mention. Despite Berlioz's frequent borrowing, most of his music was original.
Some of the most important and interesting factors to consider are the sources of
Berlioz's self-borrowing. It is significant that the majority of works from which Berlioz
was to borrow were composed during his early years between 1825 and 1830.5 Hugh
Macdonald notes,
... it was a period of intense activity in which not only the general trend of his
literary and musical sympathies was established, but also a bank of musical material from
which he drew in later years when time, money, or the immediate stimulus of a new
literary movement (plus accompanying public sympathy) were lacking.!16
It is also important to note that most of the works that Berlioz was to destroy were
composed during and prior to this period. One may logically conclude then that one of
the reasons Berlioz destroyed so many of his early works, especially the Resurrexit from
the Messe solennelle, was an attempt to conceal the evidence that would expose the
extent of his self-borrowings."7 Berlioz also could have realized that many of those
early works were not representative of his best compositional abilities and consequently
destroyed them, but he did manage to salvage what was good in them through reusing
them in later works.
113 Hugh Macdonald, "Berlioz's Self-Borrowings," Nineteenth Century Music, vol. 9. Garland
Library of the History of Western Music (New York: Garland, 1985): 27.
114 Ibid.
115 Ibid., 39.
116 Ibid.
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Gill, Sarah M. The Resurrexit from Hector Berlioz's Messe solennelle (1825): A Case Study in Self-Borrowing, thesis, December 1999; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2249/m1/59/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .