Eddie Covington Bass-Thematic Procedures in the 
Symphonies of Berlioz 

Ann Arbor: University Microfilms (UM order no. 65-3988, 
1964. (673 pp., University of North Carolina diss.) 

Charles Suttoni 

Considering the amount of prose that has been given over to Berlioz the 
man and the composer, relatively little has been devoted to an analysis of the 
music itself. Eddie Covington Bass's Thematic Procedures in the Symphonies of 
Berlioz is a welcome sign of growing interest in the music, and though its 
analytical approach is too limited to provide a truly satisfactory account of 
Berlioz's thematic structure, it does offer a thoroughly documented study of 
one method of constructing a melody. 

Bass opens his study with a brief, but adequate, historical account of the 
four works involved: the Symphonie Fantastique, Harold in Italy, Romeo and 
Juliet, and the Funeral and Triumphal Symphony. The justification for consider-
ing these works as a group is the fact that Berlioz, himself, called them 
"symphonies" and, given Berlioz's great familiarity with Beethoven's com-
positions, "it is not likely that there could have been any confusion of genre" 
(p. 2). This statement implies that there is some feature of Berlioz's symphonic 
writing that sets it apart from his other works. The implication is misleading, 
because the author is well aware that Berlioz often mixed genres and that he 
transferred music originally written for overtures, operas, and cantatas to the 
symphonies; the Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy are prime examples. 
Bass, however, skirts the point and makes no attempt to differentiate the 
themes of the symphonies from those of other works. The "Symphonies" of 
the dissertation's title is merely a means of limiting the analysis to the four 
works named. Beethoven's Eroica and Liszt's Faust Symphony are also included 
in the study to provide some degree of historical perspective for the Berlioz 
works. As the study is basically analytical, however, little is made of the his-
torical comparison between Berlioz and Beethoven or Liszt. 

The heart of the dissertation consists of separate analyses of Berlioz's initial 
statement of themes and his later development of them. The analysis adopts 
a method employed by Edgar Alden in an earlier dissertation ("The Role of 
the Motive in Musical Structure," University of North Carolina, 1956). This 
method deals almost exclusively with repetition within the melodic line-
either exact or modified-as a thematic procedure. For all the value such an 
analytical method may have in the study of motives, it presents an un-
balanced view of Berlioz's themes because it shunts aside such other essential 
characteristics as phrase length, cadence patterns, harmonic direction, and 
chromatic alteration. In essence, it would appear that Bass started with the 
method and applied it to Berlioz, rather than starting with Berlioz and work-
ing toward an analytical approach that would best explain the material. In 

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the end, the analysis falters in its attempt to elucidate Berlioz's melodic 
structure. 

Given this major limitation in the ·basic method, the analysis presented is 
orderly and comprehensive. In the chapter on initial thematic statements, for 
example, Bass distinguishes seven different forms of repetition: 

exact 
transposed, but non-sequential 
modified pitch contour 
modified rhythmic contour 
minor modifications of pitch and rhythm 
sequential 
thematic transformation. 

His review of the extent to which each form of repetition can be found in the 
symphonies is further subdivided by the size of the musical unit involved 
(short motive, long motive, phrase) and by whether the repetition is succes-
sive or not. 

The chapter on thematic development repeats the same group of cate-
gories and adds several other alternatives for handling thematic material, 
such as fragmentation of a theme before or after its first appearance, motivic 
relationships between themes, the transfer of a theme from one context to 
another (the idee fixe and the "Harold" theme), and contrapuntal combina-
tions of thematic material. Again, each section of the chapter is subdivided by 
the size of the musical unit and the various forms each procedure may take. 

With this analytical approach, Bass is able to highlight those types of re-
petition the composer favored and those he rarely used. Berlioz, for example, 
"characteristically made minor modifications in phrases of the same theme" 
(p. 70). Berlioz also employed transposed repetition relatively often because 
it "provided a means of thematic continuity between phrases" of a modulat-
ing theme (p. 46). 

Observations such as these-and there are many in the study-have some 
value, but tend to fall short of defining the major characteristic of a typical 
Berlioz theme: continuous and subtle modification of all elements. 
The analytical method can identify a point of chromatic alteration but ,does 
not go far enough with the harmonic implications of the change or with the 
nature of the alteration that propels the melodic line forward. In the end, 
Bass himself concludes that the themes are "essentially non-repetitive," and 
that for all the rigorous analysis the study presents, "Berlioz's melody remains 
elusive" (p. 211). 

Bass clearly knows these works wen. He has diligently searched out each 
instance of each procedure he discusses and gathered them conveniently into 
an Appendix. There are many musical examples, and each aptly illustrates 
the point under discussion, a virtue not to be taken for granted. As it stands, 
the work is a thorough study of one rather limited aspect of Berlioz's melodic 
lines. 

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