Berlioz's National Monumentalism: Expanding the Soft Power Paradigm
Open Access
- Author:
- Nemeth, Samuel Tyler
- Graduate Program:
- Musicology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- April 13, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Mark C. Ferraguto, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Marica S. Tacconi, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Berlioz
Political Music
National Monumentalism
Soft Power
Grande messe des morts
Te Deum - Abstract:
- Recent interpretations of Berlioz’s “political” compositions typically cast him as a liberal republican (Barzun 2003) or as a Bonapartist (Rushton 2003). While useful, these assessments complicate ideas about his political orientation. Determining Berlioz’s position on the political spectrum is less important than engaging with the effects of his music as statements of French grandeur, in which he exemplifies multiple political persuasions simultaneously. For example, Berlioz’s 1830 arrangement of Rouget de Lisle’s La Marseillaise, the 1835 cantata on the death of Napoleon, Le cinq mai, and the 1855 exaltation of Emperor Louis-Napoleon (Napoleon III), L’Imperiale, show a clear contrast in purpose. Works in the “architectural” or “monumental” style, described by MacDonald (1982), Cairns (2000), and Locke (2000), which include the 1837 Grande messe des morts (or Requiem), the 1840 Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, the 1849 Te Deum, and L’Imperiale, fulfill Bloom’s (1998) description of Berlioz’s reputation “as a patriotic composer with a penchant and talent for the musically grandiose.” To these architectural works, I apply the term “national monumentalism,” conceived by Therborn to classify grand architecture in nineteenth-century European capital cities as symbols of political power. By technique of orchestration, ensemble size, performance space, or grandeur of occasion, music in the national monumentalist style exalts the state, monarch, or citizenry in times of war, mourning, or celebration. For example, the sixteen timpani in the Requiem’s “Tuba Mirum” evoke the horror of the Day of Judgment, but they and similar instances of “monumental” orchestration also elevate the French nation, its citizens, or its government. However, to say that there are “political” compositions in Berlioz’s œuvre is not enough. The modern political paradigm of soft power allows us to examine Berlioz’s political works without the problem of having to classify his ideology. Scholars describe a soft power “umbrella,” under which resides the hierarchy of “public diplomacy,” “cultural diplomacy,” “arts diplomacy,” and, finally, “orchestral diplomacy.” While soft power is typically exercised on citizens from foreign nations, I suggest that national monumentalism fits within the “umbrella” as a lateral extension of arts diplomacy. Thus, I argue that Berlioz’s two “monumental” Latin works, the Grande messe des morts and the Te Deum, operate as soft power, and engage both foreign and domestic publics. Not solely the funeral music for the Comte de Damrémont, the Grande messe des morts represents the most volcanic example of the Minister Gasparin’s desire to restore French ceremonial music to its previous heights of prestige. Similarly, the Te Deum, though not commissioned on behalf of Emperor Napoleon III, engages with a foreign public in the opening and closing ceremonies at the French Exposition Universelle of 1855, which displayed France’s modern mechanized achievements to dignitaries from all over the world. In viewing Berlioz’s grandiose compositional achievements through the lenses of national monumentalism and soft power, we can interpret these political works as an exaltation of the French nation to its citizens both at home and abroad, using them as a barometer for French culture, changes in attitude, and patriotism.