Herminie (Vocal Score)

Berlioz Herminie (Vocal Score)
Scéne lyrique

The cantata Herminie belongs to a group of six surviving compositions written by Hector Berlioz between 1826 and 1830 for the prestigious Prix de Rome competition.  This was administered by the music section of the Académie des Beaux-arts, one of the four Académies, that constituted the Institut de France during the Bourbon restoration.

Berlioz was awarded the second prize for Herminie in the 1828 Prix de Rome competition.  The text, written by Pierre-Ange Vieillard de Boismartin (1778–1862), was not subjected to any major rearrangement by Berlioz; he simply composed the prescribed three recitatives and airs, and his Herminie gallops off the scene with decorum.  The orchestration contains few surprises.  He employed only the standard instrumentation, exactly the same, in fact, as his competitiors.  One striking self-borrowing in Herminie is the theme of the introduction, which was later developed as the “idée fixe” of the Symphonie fantastique.  No performance of Herminie took place in Berlioz’s lifetime.

- Urtext of the New Berlioz Edition

- Performance material (BA5789-72) available for hire