Berlioz L’enfance du Christ

Alone among Berlioz’s major works, L’enfance du Christ came into being not in response to a clear plan but gradually, haphazardly, over a period of several years. One evening in 1850 at a party, while his fellow guests played cards, his friend the architect Joseph-Louis Duc asked him to write something for his album. Berlioz complied: ’I take a scrap of paper and draw a few staves, on which in a little while an Andantino in four parts for organ makes its appearance. I am struck by a certain character of naïve, rustic devoutness in the music and decide to add some words in the same vein. The organ piece disappears and turns into a chorus of Bethlehem shepherds saying goodbye to the child Jesus at the moment when the Holy Family set out on their journey to Egypt.’