Anton Bruckner, who wrote his own Te Deum in the early 1880s, criticized Berlioz's setting for being too secular, and he was undoubtedly right: Berlioz was not a believer, he used his settings of the Requiem and Te Deum in the first place to write massive and monumental "architectural" music as a sort of "sacred opera." That is very clear in the Te Deum, in which massed instrumental and vocal forces are deployed by the composer like an army in order to exploit alternately colossal and intimate sonorities in a vast, spacious acoustic.
As was usual for Berlioz, this large work was written by fits and starts, especially as he - in contrast to the case of his Requiem - had no commission to compose it. Berlioz reused some older ideas from the early 1830s, including sketches for a Napoleonic symphony. He also borrowed from the Messe solennelle which he had already written in 1824 (and which he considered as lost - it was rediscovered in 1991).
As he had no commission, Berlioz had to involve himself in the politics of lobbying in order to find a suitable occasion where the Te Deum could gain a performance. That became the opening of the new organ in the church of St-Eustache on April 30, 1855. This was the only complete performance in Berlioz’s lifetime.
The ecclesiastical Te Deum is also sometimes known as the Ambrosian Hymn because it was said to have been spontaneously composed and recited in alternation by Saints Ambrose and Augustine when the former baptized the latter in the year 387. It is usually employed as a hymn at festive occasions, such as a royal coronation, the celebration of a military victory, or the consecration of a church official (or a new organ, as in the case of Berlioz).
Berlioz' Te Deum has six core movements, plus two which are not always performed (a prelude and a march for the presentation of the flags). These are:
Te Deum (Hymne)
Tibi omnes (Hymne)
Dignare (Prière)
Christe, Rex gloriae (Hymne)
Te ergo quaesumus (Prière)
Judex crederis (Hymne et prière)
When performed (as in the registration below), the Prelude falls between the Tibi omnes and Dignare; the March usually comes after the Judex crederis.
From the first, Berlioz wants to impress you and succeeds. He added even a third chorus, and his concern for contrasting vocal and instrumental colors prompted him to specify that the third chorus must consist of children. The work is peppered by astonishing, unexpected chord progressions and an asymmetrical melodic phrasing that sounds both odd and right at the same time. Berlioz' music remains, at even the surface, mysterious. All the same, the Te Deum is bit more conventional than the Frand Guignol of the Requiem - the "Judex crederis" movement from the Te Deum perhaps comes closest.
Listen to l'Orchestre philharmonique, la Maîtrise et le Choeur de Radio France, le Choeur d'enfants de l'Orchestre de Paris, la Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris et le Choeur de l'Armée française, conducted by Kazuki Yamada.
Choral Masterworks