The same year, the author met Yves Riesel, who was then Executive Director of Naxos France, now Director of the distributor Abeille Musique. He was very interested in publishing a CD including a closely related booklets, and Music in Words could have been a good start. But one had to be realistic : you could not ask the listener to read a booklet while looking at the timing on his CD player

In 1998 the Seventh Symphony in words got the enthusiastic support of the "French Carl-Nielsen Association", presided by the Jean-Luc Caron, biographer of Nordic composers.

In 2002, this site has been distinguished by the Hector Berlioz Website among music-related sites on the web, and in 2003 a limited edition in French of the Eighth in Words is in the project phase.

In 2005, Jacques Schmitt, musical correspondent for the Swiss press, expressed his admiration for the Eighth Symphony in Words, after he discovered the Symphony in a concert under the baton of Bernard Haitink.

General views on relationships between words and music

A text can be read simultaneously or separately from music

If a text devoted to a certain musical work is not sung or recited, it may be a programme or a musical analysis to be read before, while or after the audition, but not "at the same time".

Music in Words simply suggests to read a text at the exact speed of the recording.

When music and words are simultaneous, which of these is serving the other ?

It is difficult to give an answer once for all as it depends on the mood and concentration of the audience, and its view of the role of the text versus the music.

Even songs with trivial words can strike people more than holy works may, as Marcel Proust told us. In the sacred domain, the music is expected to serve the holy words.

Conversely, underrated scores for movies may prove to be as famous and important as the film they are illustrating, as it is the case for Sergei Prokofiev's music to "Alexander Nevski" (S. Eisenstein, 1938), or Bernard Herrmann with "Psycho" (A. Hitchcock, 1960).

On 16th April 2003, the Shostakovich International Association organised a superb concert in Paris featuring Odna with the Shostakovich film scored played live the Amsterdam Conservatory Orchestra and Chorus and soloists under conducting of Marc Fitz-Gerald. This movie is of an outstanding quality but the film of the 6th part (among 7) was missing - only the music survived. During this missing part, spectators were able to understand what was going on in the music by reading subtitles on the screen. Unfortunately, music and words were not synchronised. When by chance the words were describing what was going on in the music at the exact time one was listening to it, a certain "harmony" evolved between them. However when a certain "desynchronisation" occurred (words had nothing to do with the music), a choice had to be made: read the text and forget about the music, or the contrary.

Narrative versus pure music, a most controversial and fruitless issue since Berlioz

European instrumental music is divided into two parts since at least the 19th century, the narrative on one side, the abstract or "pure" on the other.

In this respect, Hector Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony is supposed to be the archetype of narrative music in the 19th century, while Igor Stravinsky is known as one of the leading champions of abstract music in the 20th century.

A balanced approach is not to oppose this idea of two types of music, as both are obviously closely related with their composer and his time.

David Cairns, in his outstanding biography on Berlioz, is among those who strongly support such a view, and his short analysis of this issue is very enlightening.

Berlioz himself was not so obsessed by the programme of his Fantastic Symphony. As the Symphony became familiar to the public, he tended to consider that the programme he associated with it was no longer a necessity.

In 1845, 15 years after the completion of the Symphony, he attached the following note to the first edition of the score :

"The composer’s intention has been to develop various episodes in the life of an artist, in so far as they lend themselves to musical treatment. As the work cannot rely on the assistance of speech, the plan of the instrumental drama needs to be set out in advance. The following programme* must therefore be considered as the spoken text of an opera, which serves to introduce musical movements and to motivate their character and expression.

*This programme should be distributed to the audience at concerts where this symphony is included, as it is indispensable for a complete understanding of the dramatic plan of the work. [HB]"

In 1855 Berlioz took some distance : "If the symphony is performed on its own as a concert piece (...) one may even dispense with distributing the programme and keep only the title of the five movements. The author hopes that the symphony provides on its own sufficient musical interest independently of any dramatic intention."

To Berlioz already then absolute music "versus" programme music was a non-issue.

The author

He is Secretary General of the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society (France), whose website he has created in 2002 and manages since. 

He is also Secretary General of ResMusica.net, an association which publishes the online magazine ResMusica.com, which is the most popular French speaking online magazine on classical music. You can access his articles in French here. In 2006, he has been responsible for the special issue celebrating the centenary of Shostakovich.

Contact him at:  jc @ musicinwords.net (remove blanks before and after the @ to send an email)

Thanks to Alan Mercer for his help on this page