About this edition
Composed in the wake of his monumental Requiem and Te Deum, Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ (1850–1854) shows the great Romantic firebrand at his most tender and restrained — a "trilogie sacrée" that follows Herod's troubled dream, the Holy Family's flight into Egypt, and their weary arrival at Saïs. Its most beloved page, the gentle "L'adieu des bergers," was first heard as a supposed relic by a fictitious seventeenth-century composer, "Pierre Ducré" — a hoax that revealed Berlioz's gift for archaic simplicity. From the modal fugal prelude and Herod's brooding aria to the famous unaccompanied chorus "Ô mon âme," the work is remarkable for an intimacy of color — paired flutes, harp, muted strings — rarely associated with his grander canvases.
This printing reproduces the score from Hector Berlioz Werke, Serie IV, Band 9, issued by Breitkopf und Härtel of Leipzig between 1900 and 1907 (plate H.B. 27). Edited by Charles Malherbe (1853–1911) and Felix Weingartner (1863–1942), with German singing translations by Peter Cornelius and Weingartner and an English translation by John Bernhoff, this was the first complete critical edition of Berlioz's music. Prepared by editors working from the composer's autographs and early sources, it has served conductors and scholars as a standard reference for more than a century.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score presenting all three parts of the sacred trilogy, with vocal lines
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain source
- Trilingual French, German, and English vocal text as found in the original edition
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
This edition is a faithful reproduction of a historical score now in the public domain, offered so that today's performers, students, and scholars can study and enjoy this quietly radiant work. We're glad to help keep it in circulation and in your hands.