Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

Department

Music

First Advisor

William Grimes

Abstract

Charles-Auguste de Beriot (1802-70) was a Belgian violinist, composer, and teacher. He was trained in his youth in Belgium and in the early 1820s travelled to Paris and studied briefly with the noted teacher Pierre Baillot at the Paris Conservatoire. He then embarked upon a solo career and from 1829 to 1836 he toured with the famed opera singer Maria Malibran, whom he married in 1836. In 1842, after declining an offer to replace Baillot at the Paris Conservatoire, Beriot accepted a position at the Brussels Conservatoire. He remained there until his retirement due to failing eyesight in 1852, and continued to compose until his death. Beriot was the founder of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing and composition, which was a combination of the French style and the new virtuosic style that was initiated by Paganini. Beriot was an influential figure in the development of the nineteenth-century virtuoso violin concerto, a genre that was continued by such composers as Ernst, Vieuxtemps (Beriot's student), and Wieniawski. The ten concertos of Beriot span his creative output, the first being opus 16 and the last opus 127. Because Beriot's concertos were well-known in the nineteenth century, and because later composers expanded upon his ideas, the ten concertos serve as excellent preparatory works for the standard Romantic repertoire. The monograph consists of a short biography of Beriot, with historical background to the concertos and dates of publication of a number of editions. The ten concertos are then examined in detail, especially from a technical standpoint. The final chapter demonstrates the ways in which Beriot's concertos can serve as preparatory material, by comparing the ten concertos with those of Bruch, Ernst, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens, Vieuxtemps, and Wieniawski.

Pages

143

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.5694

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