Berlioz, Hector. Autograph letter signed, in French, 3 pages (9 ½ x 7 ½ in.; 241 x 191 mm.), "Montmartre," 16 December 1835 t...

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Berlioz, Hector. Autograph letter signed, in French, 3 pages (9 ½ x 7 ½ in.; 241 x 191 mm.), "Montmartre," 16 December 1835 to his lifelong friend Humbert Ferrand at Belley; scattered spotting, address panel on verso of third page with seal tears. Berlioz experiences great success in Germany thanks to Franz Liszt. Berlioz writes in full; translated from French: I am not to blame for having kept you waiting so long for a letter; you can have no idea of what I have to do day after day, and how very little leisure I have, even when I have any. But it is useless to expatiate on that subject; I am sure you do not doubt the pleasure I experience in writing to you. I met A. Coste, the publisher of Italie pittoresque, yesterday; he told me that it is too late to send in any article for that work, as it is approaching a conclusion, but that if you like to send him any biographies of illustrious men and women for his publication, Galerie des Hommes lllustres de l'ltalie, which is to come out as a continuation of ltalie pittoresque, he will be delighted. Send him the names of the subjects you chose, so as to avoid any chance of their being done twice over, or given to somebody else. As nobody has paid any attention to the women, Coste would be glad if you would devote your self especially to them. Your articles will be paid for at the rate of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five francs; I will do my best to get the hundred and twenty-five for you. Thank you for your verses; if I can find time, I will try to hit upon a tune to match them. I should very much like to send you the score of Harold, which is dedicated to you. It has been twice as successful this year as last, and it decidedly surpasses the Symphie fantastique. I am glad I offered you the dedication before I made you acquainted with the work; to introduce it to you will be a fresh delight Frankly, I have written nothing which will suit you better. An opera of mine has been accepted at the Opera; Duponchel is in a good humor; the libretto which, this time, will be a poem, is by Alfred de Vigny and August Barbier. It is deliciously vivacious, and full of color. I cannot set to work upon the music yet; metal fails me as it did my hero (you know, perhaps, that he is Benvenuto Cellini). In a day or two I will try to find time to send you a few notes for the article you want to write, and especially about Harold. I am most successful in Germany, thanks to the pianoforte arrangement of my Symphonie fantastique by Liszt I have received a bundle of newspapers from Leipzig and Berlin, in which Fetis shines brilliantly with light reflected from me. Liszt is not here. Besides, we are so intimately connected that his name would do the article more harm than good. Thank you for all you say about my wife and my son; I love them more and more every day. Henrietta is deeply sensible of all the interest you take in her, but your allusions to our little Louis delight her most. In a postscript, Berlioz has added; The two extracts from Harold cannot be taken apart from the remainder without making nonsense of them. It would be just like sending you the second act of an opera Berlioz composed his second symphony, Harold en Italie, in the summer of 1834, in response to a request from Paganini for a work in which he might display a fine Stradivari viola. Berlioz used the opportunity to devise an unusual symphony with concerto elements in which echoes of his Italian journey are presented in the cloak of Byron's Childe Harold. It was first performed that winter. Ferrand was Berlioz's closest friend; a lawyer by profession, he was also a poet and novelist. They were students together, and from 1827, when Ferrand left Paris for Belley (90 km east of Lyon), they rarely met but corresponded frequently and devotedly. Of all his correspondents it was Ferrand to whom Berlioz truly opened his heart. His letters to him, spanning 43 years, provide the most expansive and vital autobiographical record - comparable to his Memoires, but written for private rather than public consumption.