1831—Rome, Italy

Hector Berlioz, writing from Rome, voices his disgust with the military music there: “…but for this fatal imagination of mine, I should not have been so disgusted by the impious, coarse cacophony of those two groups of quacking clarinets, roaring trombones, crashing drums, and circus trumpets. Had it ushered in old Silenus, riding on his ass, and escorted by a troupe of coarse satyrs and bacchantes, it would have been highly appropriate…” (Whitwell, 19th Century 102).