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See also: born on the 11th of See also: December 1803 at Cote-See also: Saint-See also: Andre, a small See also: town near See also: Grenoble, in the department of See also: Isere
.
His See also: father, See also: Louis
See also: Berlioz, was a physician of repute, and by his See also: desire See also: Hector for some See also: time devoted himself to the study of See also: medicine
.
At the same time he had See also: music lessons, and, in secret, perused numerous theoretical See also: works on counterpoint and harmony, with little profit it seems, till the hearing and subsequent careful analysis of one of See also: Haydn's quartets opened a new vista to his unguided aspirations
.
A similar See also: work written by Berlioz in imitation of Haydn's masterpiece was favorably received by his See also: friends
.
From See also: Paris, where he had been sent to See also: complete his
medical studies, he at last made known to his father the unalterable decision of devoting himself entirely to See also: art, the answer to which confession was the withdrawal of all further pecuniary assistance
.
In See also: order to support See also: life Berlioz had to accept the humble engagement of a See also: singer in the See also: chorus of the Gymnase theatre
.
Soon, however, he became reconciled to his father and entered the Conservatoire, where he studied composition under See also: Reicha and Lesueur
.
His first important composition was an See also: opera called See also: Les Francs-Juges, of which, however, only the See also: overture remains extant
.
In 1825 he See also: left the Conservatoire, and began a course of self-See also: education, founded chiefly on the works of See also: Beethoven, See also: Gluck, Weber and other See also: German masters
.
About this See also: period Berlioz saw for the first time the talented Irish actress Henrietta Smithson, who was then charming Paris by her impersonations of Ophelia, Juliet and other Shakespearean characters
.
The enthusiastic See also: young composer became deeply enamoured of her at first sight, and tried, for a long time in vain, to gain the love or even the See also: attention of his idol
.
To an incident of this See also: wild and persevering courtship Berlioz's first symphonic work, See also: Episode de la See also: vie d'un artiste, owes its origin
.
By the advice of his friends Berlioz once more entered the Conservatoire, where, after several unsuccessful attempts, his cantataSee also: Sardanapalus gained him the first prize for See also: foreign travel (1830), in spite of the strong See also: personal antagonism of one of the umpires
.
During a stay in See also: Italy Berlioz composed an overture to See also: King
See also: Lear, and Le Retour a la vie—a sort of See also: symphony, with intervening poetical declamation between the single movements, called by the composer a melologue, and written in continuation of the Episode de la vie d'un artiste, along with which work it was performed at the Paris Conservatoire in 1832
.
See also: Paganini on that occasion spoke to Berlioz the memorable words: " See also: Vous cornmencez See also: par on les autres ont fini." See also: Miss Smithson, who also was See also: present on the occasion, consented to become the wife of her ardent See also: lover in 1833
.
The See also: marriage was a tempestuous See also: mistake
.
In 1840 he separated from his wife, who died in 1854
.
Six months later Berlioz married Mademoiselle Recio
.
His second wife did not live very long, nor was there much that was edifying in this marriage
.
Between the date of his first marriage and 184o came out his dramatic symphonies Harold en Italie, Funebre et triomphale, and Romeo et Juliette; his opera Benvenuto See also: Cellini (1837); his See also: Requiem, and other works
.
In the course of time Berlioz won his due share of the distinctions generally awarded to See also: artistic merit, such as the ribbon of the See also: Legion of Honour and the membership of the Institute
.
But these distinctions he owed, perhaps, less to a genuine admiration of his compositions than to his successes abroad and his influential position as the musical critic of the Journal See also: des Debats (a position which he held from 1838 to 1864, and which he never used or abused to push his own works)
.
In 1842 Berlioz went for the first time to See also: Germany, where he was hailed with welcome by the leading musicians of the younger generation, Robert Schumann foremost amongst them
.
The latter paved the way for the French composer's success by a comprehensive analysis of the Episode in his musical journal, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik
.
In 1846 he produced his magnificent cantata La Damnation de See also: Faust
.
Berlioz gave successful concerts at See also: Leipzig and other German cities, and repeated his visit on various later occasions—in 1852 by invitation of See also: Liszt, to conduct his opera, Benvenuto Cellini (hissed off the stage in Paris), at See also: Weimar; and in 1855 to produce his See also: oratorio-trilogy, L'Enfance du Christ, in the same city
.
This latter work had been previously performed at Paris, where Berlioz mystified the critics by pretending to have found the last chorus amongst the See also: manuscript scores of a composer of the 17th century, See also: Pierre Ducre by name
.
In 1855 his Te Deum was written for the opening of the Paris See also: exhibition
.
Berlioz also
made journeys to Vienna (1866) and St See also: Petersburg (1867),
where his works were received with See also: great See also: enthusiasm
.
In 1861
he produced his work See also: Beatrice et Benedict, and in 1863 Les Troyens
.
He died in Paris on the 8th of See also: March 1869
.
It is not only as a composer that the life of Berlioz is full of
See also: interest, although in this respect his achievement is singularly significant for the comprehension of the See also: modern spirit in music
.
But it is as the See also: symbol of French romanticism in the whole domain of aesthetic perception that his pre-See also: eminence has come to be recognized
.
His Memoires (begun in See also: London in 1848 and finished in 1865) illustrate this romantic spirit at its highest See also: elevation as well as at its lowest depths
.
Victor Hugo was a romantic, Musset was a romantic, but Berlioz was romanticism itself
.
As a boy he is in despair over the despair of See also: Dido, and his breath is taken away at Virgil's " Quaesivit coelo lucem ingemuitque reperta." At the age of twelve he is in love with " Estelle," whom he meets fifty years afterwards
.
The scene is described by himself (1865) with minute fidelity—a scene whichSee also: Flaubert must have known by See also: heart when he wrote its parallel in the novel L'Education sentimentale
.
The See also: romance of this meeting between the man—old, isolated, unspeakably sad, with the See also: halo of public fame burning round him—and the woman—old also, a See also: mother, a widow, whose beauty he had worshipped when she was eighteen—is striking
.
In a See also: frame of chastened melancholy and joy at the sight of Estelle, Berlioz goes to dine with Patti and her See also: family
.
Patti, on the See also: threshold of her career, pets Berlioz with such uncontrollable affection, that as the composer wrote a description of his feelings he was overwhelmed at the bitterness of See also: fate
.
What would he not have given for Estelle to show him such affection
!
Patti seemed to him like a marvellous See also: bird with See also: diamond wings flitting round his See also: head, resting on his shoulder, plucking his hair and singing her most joyous songs to the accompaniment of beating wings
.
" I was enchanted but not moved
.
The fact is that the young, beautiful, dazzling, famous virtuoso who at the age of twenty-two has already seen musical See also: Europe and See also: America at her feet, does not win the power of love in me; and the aged woman, sad, obscure, ignorant of art, possesses my soul as she did in the days gone by, as she will do until my last See also: day." If this episode touches the See also: sublime, it may be urged with almost equal truth that his description of the exhumation of his two wives and their reburial in a single See also: tomb touches the ridiculous
.
And yet the scene is described with a perception of all the detail which would See also: call for the highest praise in a novelist
.
Perhaps some parallel between the splendid and the ridiculous in this singular figure may be seen in the comparison of Nadar's caricature with See also: Charpentier's portrait of the composer
.
The profound admiration of Berlioz for See also: Shakespeare, which See also: rose at moments to such a See also: pitch of folly that he set Shakespeare in the place of See also: God and worshipped him, cannot be explained simply on the ground that Henrietta Smithson was a great Shakespearean actress
.
Unquestionably the great figures in See also: English literature had a profound attraction for him, and while the romantic spirit is obvious in his selections from See also: Byron and See also: Scott, it can also be traced in the quality of his enthusiasm for Shakespeare
.
It is in his music more than in his See also: literary attitude, however, that is disclosed something in addition to the pure romance of Schumann
.
—something that places him nearer in kind to Wagner, who recognized in him a composer from whose works he might learn something useful for the cultivation of his own ideals
.
As a youth the power of Beethoven's symphonies made a deep impression on Berlioz, and what has been described as the " poetical idea " in Beethoven's creations ran riot in the young medical student's mind
.
He thus became one of the most ardent and enlightened originators of what is now known as " See also: programme music." Technically he was a brilliant musical colourist, often extravagant, but with the extravagant emotional-ism of See also: genius
.
He was a master of the orchestra; indeed, his treatment of the orchestra and his invention of unprecedented effects of timbre give him a solitary position in musical See also: history; he had an extraordinary gift for the use of the various See also: instruments, and himself propounded a new ideal for the force to be employed, on an enormous See also: scale
.
His literary works include the Traite d'See also: instrumentation (1844); Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie (1845); Les Soirees d'orchestre (1853) ; Les Grotesques de la musique (1859) A travers chant (1862); Memoires (187o) ; Lettres intimes (1882),
.
For a full See also: list of his musical works, See also: Grove's
See also: Dictionary should be consulted
.
The new critical edition of the complete musical works (published by Breitkopf and Hartel) is in ten series
.
I
.
Symphonies: Fantastique, Op
.
14; Funebre et triomphale, Op
.
15, for military See also: band and chorus; Harold en Italie, Op
.
16, with violaSee also: solo; Romeo et Juliette, with chorus and See also: soli
.
II
.
Overtures (ten, including the five belonging to larger works)
.
III
.
Smaller instrumental works, of which only the Funeral March for See also: Hamlet is important
.
IV
.
Sacred music: the Grande Messe des moms, Op
.
5; the Te Deum, Op
.
22; L'Enfance du Christ, Op
.
25, and four smaller pieces
.
V
.
Secular cantatas, including Hui' scenes de Faust, Op
.
1; Lelio, ou le retour a la vie, Op . 146 (sequel to Symphonie fantastique), and La Damnation de Faust, Op . 24 . VI . Songs and lyric choruses with orchestra, two vols . VII . Songs and lyric choruses with pianoforte, 2 vols. including arrangements of the orchestral songs . VIII . Operas: Benvenuto Cellini; Les Troyens (five acts in two parts, La Prise de Troie and Les Troyens aSee also: Carthage) ; Recitatives for the See also: dialogue in Weber's Freischi tz
.
IX
.
Arrangements, including the well-known orchestral version of Weber's Invitation a la dance
.
X
.
Fragments and new discoveries . Adolphe See also: Julien's biography of Berlioz (1888) first gave a careful account of the details of his life
.
See also the books by R
.
Pohl (1884), P
.
Galibert (1890), E
.
Hippeau (189o), G
.
Noufflard (1885), L
.
Nlesnard (1888), Louise Pohl (1900), and D
.
See also: Bernard (trans. by H
.
M
.
See also: Dunstan, 1882)
.
An See also: illuminating essay on Berlioz is in Filson Young's Mastersingers (1902)
.
See also the essay in W . H . Hadow's Studies in Modern Music (1st series, 1908) . Berlioz's Traite d'instrumentation has been translated into German and brought up to date by See also: Richard Strauss (Peters' edition [1906])
.
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