L'enfance du Christ

Trilogie sacrée

Two Editions (one in French/English; one in French/German), based on the New Berlioz Edition; BA 5447b including in No. 15 a piano reduction for rehearsal purposes
English translation by H. Macdonald
German translation by St. Troßbach
Vocal Score by E. Wernhard
BA 5447a (Fr/Ger)
BA 5447b (Fr/Eng)

Postscript

The genesis of L'enfance du Christ was unusual for Berlioz, since he normally had a plan of his larger works in mind before he began writing. The work is divided into three parts; part two La fuite en Égypte (The Flight into Egypt), was composed in the autumn of 1850 and first performed in full in Leipzig in December 1853. The success of this led Berlioz to undertake a sequel, L'arrivée a Saïs (The Arrival at Saïs), which he finished in April 1854. He then began work on the opening panel of the triptych, Le songe d'Hérode (Herod's Dream), which he completed on 27 July 1854. Berlioz himself wrote the text for all three parts.

It is in a letter to his sister Adèle, following a rehearsal for the 1853 performance in Leipzig, that Berlioz mentions the possibility of enlarging the work. "This morning I heard for the first time (in its entirety) my Mystery La fuite en Égypte [...]. In truth it is good, it is naïve and touching (don't laugh), and it resembles the style of the illuminations found in old missals. Everybody says I have fully succeeded in finding the appropriate colouring for this biblical legend, and I am being urged to continue the work by now going on to write La Sainte Famille en Égypte".

On 14 April 1854 Berlioz wrote to Liszt that he would finish the orchestration of L'arrivée a Saïs (the final title of part three) while in Dresden and that Frederick Beale, the London publisher, would probably bring it out in English, "but only when I have written a third part for this little biblical trilogy. This third part will in fact be the first and will have as its subject the massacre of the innocents.” The premiere of L'enfance du Christ took place on 10 December 1854 in Paris in the Salle Herz, with Berlioz conducting, and was a triumph for the composer.
In the Postcript to his Memoirs, Berlioz is remarkably objective about his outstanding success: "Some people, imagined they could detect in this work a complete change in my manner and style. Nothing could be more mistaken. The subject naturally lent itself to a mild and simple kind of music. That was why they found it more accessible - that and the development of their own taste and powers of understanding. I would have written L'enfance du Christ in the same way twenty years ago."
The present edition is divided into numbers 1-15 for convenience.

David Lloyd-Jones

Contents

Part I
Herod's Dream
No. 1

Scene I
No. 2 Night March

Scene II
No. 3 Herod's Air

Scene III

Scene IV
No. 4

Scene V
No. 5 Duo

Scene VI
No. 6

Part II
The Flight into Egypt

No. 7
No. 8 The Shepherd' Farewell to the Holy Family
No. 9 The Repose of the Holy Family


Part III
The Arrival at Saïs
No. 10

Scene I
No. 11 Duo

Scene II
No. 12
No. 13 Triofor two flutes and harpe
No. 14
No. 15