While except for a few rare passages it does not fall as low as the atrocities which disfigure the grandiose _Mass in D_, the vocal part of the _Requiem_ is awkwardly written.

Singers are ill at ease in it, for the timbre and regularity of the voice resent such treatment.

The tenor's part is so written that he is to be congratulated on getting through it without any accident, and nothing more can be expected of him.
What a pity it was that Berlioz did not fall in love with an Italian singer instead of an English tragedienne! Cupid might have wrought a miracle.

The author of the _Requiem_ would have lost none of his good qualities, but he might have gained, what, for the lack of a better phrase, is called the fingering of the voice, the art of handling it intelligently and making it give without an effort the best effect of which it is capable.

But Berlioz had a horror even of the Italian language, musical as that is.