Harold in Italy, Op. 16

• Written in 1834, Berlioz’s symphony with solo viola, Harold in Italy, was inspired by Lord Byron’s poem, “Child Harold’s Pilgrimage.”
• Four movements:
  1. Harold aux montagnes. Scènes de mélancolie, de bonheur, et de joie (Harold in the mountains. Scenes of melancoly, happiness and joy)
  2. Marche de pélerins chantant la prière du soir (Procession of pilgrims singing the evening hymn)
  3. Sérénade d’un montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse (Serenade of an Abruzzi-mountaineer to his sweetheart)
  4. Orgie de brigands. Souvenirs des scènes précédentes (The brigand’s orgies. Reminiscences of the preceding scenes)¹
• Harold in Italy was commissioned by virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini, who had just purchased a Stradivarius viola. Ultimately, however, Paganini didn’t find the piece flashy enough and never played it.
• Berlioz wrote the following about his inspiration for the symphony:

“My idea was to write a series of scenes for the orchestra in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active character, always retaining its own individuality. By placing the viola in the midst of poetic recollections of my wanderings in the [Italian] Abruzzi, I wished to make of it a sort of melancholy dreamer after the manner of Byron’s Childe Harold. Thus the title: Harold in Italy.”²

1. “Harold en Italie, H 68 (Berlioz, Hector),” IMSLP, accessed December 3, 2024, https://imslp.org/wiki/Harold_en_Italie,_H_68_(Berlioz,_Hector).
2. Betsy Schwarm, “Harold in Italy, Op. 16,” Encyclopedia Britannica (2015), accessed December 3, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Harold-in-Italy-Op-16.