Berlioz Music Scores

Te Deum (H 118): Prelude and March

Contents of this page

Introduction
The two orchestral movements

Introduction

Berlioz thought of the Requiem and the Te Deum as ‘two brothers’ (CG nos. 1959, 1961), which should be mentioned together, as he does in his Memoirs when he links the two works together as pieces that were monumental in character (see the two consecutve paragraphs in the Post-Scriptum). In this respect they are unusual among Berlioz’s major works; Berlioz did not normally repeat himself, but made sure that each new composition was distinctive and original as compared with his previous works; this is true for example of each of the four symphonies and of the three operas. The Requiem and Te Deum were both monumental, not only in the very large forces they required for performance, but in the breadth of their style. They both included one movement with a solo tenor (the Sanctus in the Requiem and the Te ergo quaesumus in the Te Deum). It is probably no accident that the words Pleni sunt coeli were set to very similar music in both choral works (in the Sanctus in the Requiem, and in the Tibi omnes of the Te Deum). Both works made use of space as an expressive element, though this was achieved differently in the two works: the Requiem made use of four brass bands set at the four corners of the choral mass, whereas the Te Deum introduced the organ, but deliberately placed at one end of the church, opposite to the orchestra and at a distance, in conformity with Berlioz’s long-expressed view that orchestral sonorities did not blend naturally with those of the organ, and they should therefore be separated and contrasted with each other (see the section on the organ in Berlioz’s Treatise on Orchestration, and cf. the letter of Berlioz to Vladimir Stasov of 1847, CG no. 1111). As Berlioz put it, ‘one is Emperor and the other Pope; they have different missions, their interests are too vast and too divergent to be confused’.

Yet for all their similarities the two works are nevertheless different in character: the Requiem is an essentially sombre and dramatic work which relies on sometimes extreme contrasts, and is permeated by the sense of awe experienced by humanity when confronted with death and the last judgement. The Te Deum on the other hand is predominantly celebratory in character as its text implies, a hymn of praise as well as of prayer. Though it has its moments of anguish in the Judex crederis, the mood changes in the concluding pages of that colossal movement to end on a note of certainty and almost of triumph, quite different from the Dies irae and Tuba mirum of the Requiem. The work’s concluding movement is a celebratory march (see below). The choral writing of the Te Deum is also richer and more complex than that of the Requiem: it is written throughout for a double chorus, each in 3 parts (sopranos, tenors, basses). After hearing a concert by 6500 Charity Children at St Paul’s church in London in 1851 Berlioz added a third chorus of children to the three grandest movements of the work (Te deum, Tibi omnes, Judex crederis).

Unlike the Requiem the history of the composition of the Te Deum leaves unanswered questions. Berlioz started work on it late in 1848 or early in 1849 (cf. NL pp. 338-40, no. 1245bis [7 February 1849]; CG no. 1246 [23 February 1849]), but it is not clear what prompted him to begin at that particular time the composition of a large-scale choral work, the performance of which could not be taken for granted. Unlike other large works such as the Requiem and the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, the Te Deum was not written in answer to an official commission; nor is it clear what stimulus if any was provided by Berlioz’s visit to Russia in 1847 (on these questions see relevant sections of the pages on Berlioz and Russia and on Berlioz and Liszt). A first version of the work was completed in 1849, though it underwent further revision subsequently, and it eventually comprised a total of eight movements (CG no. 1552), though one of them was later disowned by Berlioz (see below). Some of the music of the Te Deum was adapted from his discarded Messe solennelle of 1824-25: a passage in the Christe rex gloriae and the main part of the Te ergo quaesumus.

Berlioz had great difficulty in getting the work performed; he hoped in 1852 to get it included in a ceremony commemorating the consecration of Napoleon III as Emperor (CG nos. 1525, 1528, 1538, cf. 1568), but this fell through, and it was only on 30 April 1855 that it received its first and only complete performance at St Eustache in Paris, in the year of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. The occasion is described in several letters of Berlioz (CG nos. 1959, 1961, 1972; see also the review by Edmond Viel). In the same year Berlioz was able to include several movements of the work in two large-scale concerts he gave at the Palais de l’Industrie (16 and 24 November). He also performed the monumental Judex crederis at one of his summer concerts in Baden-Baden (18 August 1857). The work was published in 1855 and dedicated to Prince Albert, though the Prince did not deign to respond to the subscription opened for the publication of the work (CG no. 2211), and it was never performed in Britain in Berlioz’s lifetime. The autograph score of the work was donated in 1862 by Berlioz to the Imperial Public Library of St Petersburg, in answer to a request from Vladimir Stasov, possibly prompted by Balakirev, both of them leading admirers of Berlioz in Russia; the Russians regarded it as Berlioz’s greatest work (CG nos. 2650, 2676, 2676bis, cf. 3375). Berlioz’s donation had one important consequence which he may not have realised at the time: the autograph score contained the original 3rd movement, called Prelude (for orchestra alone), which Berlioz omitted from the first performance of the work and left out of the published version of the score. Stasov was delighted to discover it on receipt of Berlioz’s autograph score, and it was apparently included in a complete performance of the Te Deum given in St Petersburg in 1868/9 (CG nos. 2676, 3375). It was published for the first time in the Breitkopf edition of Berlioz’s works from the autograph manuscript in St Petersburg (volume 8). (On the Prelude see further below).

The fullest description of the work from the pen of Berlioz is to be found in a letter of his to Liszt dated 1 January 1853 (CG no. 1552), the relevant section of which is reproduced below, though it should be pointed out that it does not mention all the eight movements of the work, nor does it present them in sequence.

You write to me about the Te Deum. I am unable to send the score to you, given that the Emperor is leaving us in a state of uncertainty about what he is going to decide. I might be needing the score at a moment’s notice. The work cannot be performed in Germany except at a large Festival. In general everything is ready, chorus and orchestra and for a considerable number of performers. It lasts one hour. There are eight large-scale movements among them a Finale [VII] which I believe to be a close cousin of the Lacrimosa of my Requiem. There is in addition a prayer for tenor solo with chorus [VI], and another prayer for two voices (of the chorus) in canonical imitation [IV], over the following unusual sequence of pedals held by the other voices of the chorus and bass instruments:

Te Deum

If well sung by tenors and sopranos I believe this movement should be touching and original. But it might also be very boring…
As for the rest it consists of the harmonic pomp of the Te Deum proper. There is a fugue based on a chorale first stated by the organ, which then passes around the voices and the orchestra [I]. The whole of the score is throughout written for a double chorus, and each chorus has only three voices [sopranos, tenors, basses]. The organ does not accompany, but dialogues with the orchestra.

The two orchestral movements

Prelude

This movement is found in the autograph score of the work where it precedes the Dignare; it was thus originally the third movement. Berlioz specified in the score that the piece should only be included in performances that had some military connotation. But he clearly had his doubts about it. He did not include it in the first performance of the work at St Eustache in Paris on 30 April 1855, a ceremony which did not have any military connotations. In a letter to Liszt shortly before he writes that he has ‘simply cut out the prelude where the questionable modulations are to be found’ (CG no. 1935); this suggests that Liszt may also have had reservations about it. Which passage or passages of the Prelude were thought objectionable is hard to see. At any rate the prelude was not published in the first edition of the Te Deum which came out in the same year (the Dignare thus became the 3rd movement). It was never played in Berlioz’s lifetime, apart from the possible performance in St Petersburg in 1868/9 mentioned above. Given that religious celebrations for military victories are nowadays likely to be exceedingly rare, it becomes hard to see when it is likely to be performed, and few modern recordings of the Te Deum include it (those by Eliahu Inbal with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, and by John Nelson with the Orchestre de Paris; see Berlioz Discography). But there are surely good musical reasons for including the Prelude in performances, at least occasionally.

The prelude is based on the main theme of the 1st movement, which also recurs in the concluding March (see below). It thus fits into the overall structure of the complete work. It also introduces the side drum, which is also used in the Judex crederis and in the concluding March, which are thus linked together by their sonority. For the first movement Berlioz gives a metronome mark of crotchet = 88; he does not give a metronome mark for the Prelude, but indicates that the tempo should be slightly faster than that of the 1st movement. In this version the tempo has been set at crotchet = 100. The transcription provided here runs into the orchestral introduction of the Dignare which follows, to show the contrast between the two movements.

March for the Presentation of the Colours

Like the Prelude, but with far less justification, the March for the Presentation of the Colours which concludes the Te Deum is omitted from most performances and recordings of the work. Yet Berlioz included it in the first performance (see the review of that performance) and in the full score published soon after. There is nothing to suggest that he thought it should be performed only on special occasions (as was the case with the Prelude).

Berlioz’s very measured metronome mark (crotchet = 92) is not always followed in performance, but it gives to the piece a processional stateliness which forms a fitting conclusion to the work. The central fugal section is based on the main theme of the Te Deum, and in the concluding pages Berlioz brings back, on organ and full orchestra, the theme with which the organ had launched the whole work. As with the Prelude, the concluding March thus forms an integral part of the overall structure of the work.

     Prelude from the Te Deum (duration 3'27")
    — Score in large format
    (file created on 1.01.2000; revised 22.07.2001)
    — Score in pdf format

     March for the Presentation of the Colours from the Te Deum (duration 5'9")
    — Score in large format
    (file created on 23.01.2000; revised 29.08.2001)
    — Score in pdf format

This page revised and enlarged on 1 May 2022.

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