Harold in Italy, Op. 16

Hector Berlioz

(1803-1869)

When I purchased this viola I knew the name would be Harold. The Harold of Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy certainly, but also the Harold of George Gordon Byron’s (Lord Bryon 1788-1824) epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and the Harold of Joseph Mallory William Turner’s (1775-1852) paintings Ehrenbreitstein and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage-Italy. Not far into my research I realized many of us are lovers of music and literature and art but may not have the skills necessary to properly understand or interpret what we see, hear or read. Most of us are students while few are scholars. Realizing I might be in a little over my head I stopped reading and researching and began making “Harold.”

The figure at the center of the mosaic represents Bryon, Turner and Berlioz. In Harold in Italy the voice of the viola represents the melancholy dreamer and his extraordinary journey.