Berlioz’ “Roman Carnival” Overture: A Blazing Explosion of Color

Hector Berlioz’ 1844 Treatise on Orchestration provided all future composers with an instruction manual for the modern orchestra. The book, which remains influential, discusses the range and tone colors of the instruments. In his foreword to the updated 1904 edition, Richard Strauss wrote that Berlioz’ orchestration was “full of ingenious visions, whose realization by Richard Wagner is obvious to every connoisseur.” Nowhere does the modern orchestra spring to life with greater brilliance than in Roman …

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