Musicians of To-Day by Romain Rolland
page 14 of 300 (04%)
page 14 of 300 (04%)
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[Footnote 10: He would go on foot from Naples to Rome in a straight line
over the mountains, and would walk at one stretch from Subiaco to Tivoli.] [Footnote 11: This brought on several attacks of bronchitis and frequent sore throats, as well as the internal affection from which he died.] But in this strong and athletic frame lived a feverish and sickly soul that was dominated and tormented by a morbid craving for love and sympathy: "that imperative need of love which is killing me...."[12] To love, to be loved--he would give up all for that. [Footnote 12: "Music and love are the two wings of the soul," he wrote in his _Mémoires_.] But his love was that of a youth who lives in dreams; it was never the strong, clear-eyed passion of a man who has faced the realities of life, and who sees the defects as well as the charms of the woman he loves, Berlioz was in love with love, and lost himself among visions and sentimental shadows. To the end of his life he remained "a poor little child worn out by a love that was beyond him."[13] But this man who lived so wild and adventurous a life expressed his passions with delicacy; and one finds an almost girlish purity in the immortal love passages of _Les Troyens_ or the "_nuit sereine"_ of _Roméo et Juliette_. And compare this Virgilian affection with Wagner's sensual raptures. Does it mean that Berlioz could not love as well as Wagner? We only know that Berlioz's life was made up of love and its torments. The theme of a touching passage in the Introduction of the _Symphonic fantastique_ has been recently identified by M. Julien Tiersot, in his interesting book,[14] with a romance composed by Berlioz at the age of |
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