In the historiography of French music of the nineteenth century, Meyerbeer and Berlioz are generally recognized as the two great innovators in the field of instrumentation. Yet the relevance of Halévy's grands opéras is clearly mentioned by Constant Pierre in his unpublished 1888 essay devoted to the history of the Paris Opéra Orchestra:1. In La reine de Chypre, the large A trumpet that Pierre mentions belongs to the stage orchestra of the Act 3 Chœur et marche “Gloire à la reine” (no. 19) for the celebrations of the arrival of Catarina in Nicosia.
Jeu de timbres are also used to support the harp in the chorus "Aux rivages du Bosphore" in the Act 3 finale (No. 17). This is exactly what is observed in Le Juif errant, with the use of the new brass instruments of Sax. The harmonic script is an instrument-reducteur, and the double notes (second solo, bars 20-22) and octaves (example 3) are typical of the accordion.
Therefore, the choice of the soprano valve trombone seems to indicate curiosity about new possibilities. Among the unusual instruments used by Halévy, the case of the orchestra guide in La reine de Chypre is a special case. The alternating solos of the major trumpets (typical scratch calls, bars 1-3 and 9-11) and the guide (bars 5-6) are punctuated by the tutti of the orchestra and chorus: consequently, the instrument on stage must have had power significant acoustic.
Saxophones and saxhorns: The seventeenth-century instrumental families revisited
In his descriptions of the old organization of military bands, Bourges emphasized that bassoons were inaudible in the open air,35 and Léon Kreutzer noted that the natural horn could only emit natural notes, as there was no point in using stopped notes. military music, which by its very essence must be clear and sonorous, so that it can be heard even by the soldiers who stand at the rear during the marches.36 In the low to middle register, where the horns tended to be. This type of instrument was therefore deficient in two ways: firstly, because the uniform texture of the clarinets could not rest on a solid foundation, and secondly, because the horns were limited to the traditional military sounds of the trumpets. On the other hand, the valve mechanisms (pistons or cylinders) and keys of the new chromatic instruments allowed musicians to play more demanding melodies,37 and the warm and full sonority of the saxophone blended well with the clarinets. , which extends it towards the lower registers.
This sonorous continuity between the clarinet family and the new saxophones was not surprising,38 because the invention of the saxophone was in fact the result of Sax's successive attempts to improve the clarinet. After improving the bass clarinet,39 the Belgian instrument maker tried to make it blown in octaves instead of fifths (which was responsible for the instrument's problematic crackle).40 The only way to do this was to modify the shape. comme ils le sont entre les petites flûtes et les clarinettes qui sifflent à l'aigu et les trombones qui mugissent au grave". The acoustic qualities of the saxophone epitomize what was a true Copernican revolution in instruments, one that opposed the tradition inherited from the eighteenth century with the new concept of instrumental sound, especially the relationship between a single instrument and the full orchestra, which was being appeared gradually in the nineteenth century.
The fanfares in use at the end of the eighteenth century often evoked exotic instruments, such as those of the janissary music: it was a maximum contrast between the normal orchestra and the added instruments that was desired.48 Exactly the opposite principle, namely both The saxophone and saxhorn families are characterized by the availability of the same type of instrument in all registers, from bass to treble (4 instruments for the saxophones, 6 for the saxhorns), and therefore the possibility of an identical sonority across the board. entire range, and, equally, continuously. The invention of these instruments thus resembles the fulfillment of the ideal of the 'instrumental family', which developed simultaneously with the emergence of modern instrumentation.
In the finale of Act 1 (No. 7, Scène et duo finale), Ashvérus makes Théodora recognize him and entrusts her with the care of Irène, daughter of Baudoin, Emperor of the Orient. At the same moment when Ashvérus is about to stop his walk, the "heavenly trumpet" is heard, played by the 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 A-flat trumpets, 2 A-flat valve cornets, 4 A-flats. horns, 4 bassoons, 3 trombones and the ophicleide of the pit orchestra (see example 6). This time the sound of the heavenly trumpet is reproduced by 4 valve cornets and 5 trombones (Example 7).
It is noteworthy that the composer reserves the use of the Sax system for the more joyous circumstances of the triumphal marches during the coronation of Empress Irène in Act 3 Finale (No. 16 and 17).53 The saxophones and sax horns will be heard again representing the last trumpet (act 5, no. But a good reason for choosing the new system at this time was the necessity of using unknown sonorities: if the sound of the heavenly trumpet belongs to the wandering Jew's particular human experience, to face the last judgment is not given to any living soul, and only in a dream can Ashvérus imagine the scene, in itself ample justification for the mysterious sonorities of the saxophone. The last judgment fanfare is constructed in the same way: it is the most extended melody of the opera, assigned entirely to the brass, and integral to it is a similar back-and-forth between the brass band on stage and the full orchestra, here, however, unlike Act 3, the antiphony. limited to mere punctuation by the pit orchestra tutti.
53 Predictably, the reactionary press condemned the noise of the new instruments; see J.-L.
New orchestration procedures with traditional instruments
This arrangement can be compared to the six saxhorns of a stage brass orchestra: with such a great multiplication of parts, especially the inner parts, the instrumental family can function alone as an autonomous orchestra, while a full ensemble consisting of several such families gains in a variety of effects, precisely as recommended by Fétis. Even Léon Escudier, who categorically condemned the use of saxhorns, was impressed by the orchestration of the passage and declared that it would be impossible "to go further in the charm of imitation".57 Listening to this enchanting music, the literary Paul Paul Smith remembered the poem of Clément Marot and Virgil.58 Needless to say, in French culture, where the power of music was constantly questioned, the comparison of a newly composed piece of music to poetry belonging to the canon was the best possible compliment. The ability to blend the sounds of two or more instruments is related to the search for unusual sonorities that are supposed to confuse the listener, as the example of the mellophone shows.
Unisons, octaves and consonant chords are the means of combining individual sonorities to create new and complex timbres in the same way that complex molecules are made up of elementary chemical elements. The clarinet, the horn and the bassoon form the core of this type of instrumentation, but only two timbres are generally used at any one time: the clarinet and the bassoon (in octaves in La reine de Chypre, no. 16, in 4- note chords in the overture of the same opera and in no The three instruments are used together in bare octaves in the closing duet of Act 1, when Ashvérus brings to mind the erasing angel's warning: at the lines.
Of course, it was nothing to use the color of wind instruments to complement the accompaniment of strings. In the opening trio of 2. act of Le Juif errant doubles the clarinet staccato and cello pizzicato Théodora's legato line "puissé-je en cet asile". These touches of color better enable the listener to separate Théodora's inner part from Irène's (doubled by the first violin at the top of the texture) and Léon.64 In the 4th act duet between Irène and Léon in the same opera anglais, Léon's voice doubles at the beginning of the stanza " Ah.
The painting of this passage can be taken as a model of French taste: in this difficult account, the cor anglais only doubles the voice for two bars and then takes over the melody, while Leon's line is set in simple parlante. 10 of Guido et Ginévra, the clarinet doubles the oboe in the lower octave,66 and in the opening of the same opera, the instruments play parallel in sixths.67 In this piece, designed to evoke a pastoral scene, the parallelism of the instruments is not perfect and therefore the two different sources of sound are identifiable: the new approach to doubling, i.e. In the Act 1 duet of La reine de Chypre, it is the flute that the clarinet doubles, a tenth lower.68 Catarina's Air Swimming in Act 2,.
Le gondolier, dans sa pauvre nacelle", makes particularly interesting use of doubling: when the voice holds the note E-flat4 above the words "vient quille mè souffrance", the clarinet and bassoon play a rising motif parallel to the sixths, crescendo, doubled by the flute in the octave the upper one, in the next utterance of the same line.69 The appearance of this instrumental melodic line produces the effect of a momentary highlighting and illumination of the text. The composer started with horns, as can be seen in some numbers of Guido et Ginévra and La reine de Chypre.70 In Act I Finale (no. 4) of Guido et Ginévra as well as in no. In the Act 2 Finale, the Entr'acte and the fourth, fifth and sixth Airs de ballet of Act 3 (“le berger Aristée”, “la ronde”, .. la Reine des abeilles), Halévy uses the trumpet nature in cooperation with valve cornet.73.
As for the second, it has also been a remarkable tendency of composers of tragédie en musique since the inception of the genre, as Constant Pierre pointed out; this trend intensified in the 1830s and 1840s.
