[Footnote 56:  The Huit scenes de Faust are taken from Goethe’s tragedy, translated by Gerard de Nerval, and they include:  (1) Chants de la fete de Paques; (2) Paysans sous les tilleuls; (3) Concert des Sylphes; (4 and 5) Taverne d’Auerbach, with the two songs of the Rat and the Flea; (6) Chanson du roi de Thule; (7) Romance de Marguerite, “D’amour, l’ardente flamme,” and Choeur de soldats; (8) Serenade de Mephistopheles—­that is to say, the most celebrated and characteristic pages of the Damnation (see M. Prudhomme’s essays on Le Cycle de Berlioz).]

[Footnote 57:  One could hardly find a better manifestation of the soul of a youthful musical genius than that in certain letters written at this time; in particular the letter written to Ferrand on 28 June, 1828, with its feverish postscript.  What a life of rich and overflowing vigour!  It is a joy to read it; one drinks at the source of life itself.]

He wrote them at the same age, but ten years later; for Les Fees appeared in 1833, when Berlioz had already written the Fantastique, the Huit scenes de Faust, Lelio, and Harold; Rienzi was only played in 1842, after Benvenuto (1835), Le Requiem (1837), Romeo (1839), La Symphonie funebre et triomphale (1840)—­that is to say, when Berlioz had finished all his great works, and after he had achieved his musical revolution.  And that revolution was effected alone, without a model, without a guide.  What could he have heard beyond the operas of Gluck and Spontini while he was at the Conservatoire?  At the time when he composed the Ouverture des Francs-Juges even the name of Weber was unknown to him,[58] and of Beethoven’s compositions he had only heard an andante.[59]

Truly, he is a miracle and the most startling phenomenon in the history of nineteenth-century music.  His audacious power dominates all his age; and in the face of such a genius, who would not follow Paganini’s example, and hail him as Beethoven’s only successor?[60] Who does not see what a poor figure the young Wagner cut at that time, working away in laborious and self-satisfied mediocrity?  But Wagner soon made up for lost ground; for he knew what he wanted, and he wanted it obstinately.

[Footnote 58:  Memoires, I, 70.]

[Footnote 59:  Ibid.  To make amends for this he published, in 1829, a biographical notice of Beethoven, in which his appreciation of him is remarkably in advance of his age.  He wrote there:  “The Choral Symphony is the culminating point of Beethoven’s genius,” and he speaks of the Fourth Symphony in C sharp minor with great discernment.]

[Footnote 60:  Beethoven died in 1827, the year when Berlioz was writing his first important work, the Ouverture des Francs-Juges.]