Te Deum, op. 22

Abstract

Berlioz never believed in doing things on a small scale—witness his Les Troyens, almost unstageably long—but his Te Deum is probably the largest of all, particularly in comparison to the typical jubilant but far less theatrical settings of other composers. The first performance, in 1855, had almost 1,000 performers, including a 600-voice children's choir. The scale of the work is so huge that Berlioz himself called it "apocalyptic." It was originally conceived as a thanksgiving for a military occasion, probably the return of Napoleon from his Italian campaigns, and so includes an extra-liturgical prelude and final "Marche pour la presentation des drapeaux" (March for the presentation of the flags), which are generally omitted from contemporary performances. By the time Berlioz was able to publish and perform the work, he chose to dedicate it to Prince Albert (the husband of Queen Victoria), who was about as mild-mannered and untheatrical a prince as can be imagined!

Its unabashed theatricality speaks of both Berlioz's own general lack of religious sentiments and to the original political and public nature of his original conception of the piece. Berlioz composed a good deal of religious music, certainly, and many of his musical dramas are based on religious themes, but it was the sweeping emotion of these stories, rather than the spiritual content, that drew his attention. In the Te Deum text, a hymn of praise to God and a plea for God's protection, he found a scope for this kind of dramatic sense.

The Te Deum is ambitious both in scale and in musical complexity; the choral writing in particular is dense, but nonetheless coherent and well-structured, especially in the first section. The work employs frequent contrasts. The first section, a hymn setting of the first part of the Te Deum text, begins with huge chords from the winds, brass, and organ, and are followed by a dense choral fugue from both of the three-part choirs. The second also begins with the organ, but here it is lyrical, rather than thunderous, as is the choral writing, which begins with the women's voices, supported by the winds. The work rises to a lyrical climax, but as the text begins to describe the "heaven and the earth are full of your praises," the texture again becomes heavier and louder with the introduction of the percussion. The third and fourth sections follow this same pattern of periods of quiet followed by huge climaxes, with only the fifth section, a passage for solo tenor and women's voices, remaining hushed throughout. The excitement here is conveyed by the rising of the voices, rather than an increase in volume. The last section is the most church-like, beginning with a stately organ passage, but this, too, is overwhelmed by the dramatic instrumental and choral writing, before it ends to the sound of thundering brasses.