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HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 793 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HECTOR See also:BERLIOZ (1803-1869)  , See also:French musical composer, was 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 See also: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 See also:secret, perused numerous theoretical See also:works on See also:counterpoint and See also:harmony, with little profit it seems, till the See also:hearing and subsequent careful See also: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 See also: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 See also:answer to which See also: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 See also:theatre . Soon, however, he became reconciled to his father and entered the See also:Conservatoire, where he studied See also:composition under See also:Reicha and See also: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, See also:Weber and other See also:German masters . About this See also:period Berlioz saw for the first time the talented Irish actress Henrietta See also: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 See also: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 See also:

advice of his friends Berlioz once more entered the Conservatoire, where, after several unsuccessful attempts, his See also:cantata See also:Sardanapalus gained him the first See also: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 See also:share of the distinctions generally awarded to See also:artistic merit, such as the ribbon of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour and the membership of the See also: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 See also: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 See also:generation, See also:Robert See also: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 See also: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 See also:stage in Paris), at See also:Weimar; and in 1855 to produce his See also:oratorio-trilogy, L'Enfance du See also:Christ, in the same See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 . See also:Victor See also:Hugo was a romantic, See also: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 See also:Virgil's " Quaesivit coelo lucem ingemuitque reperta." At the See also:age of twelve he is in love with " Estelle," whom he meets fifty years afterwards .

The See also:

scene is described by himself (1865) with See also:minute fidelity—a scene which See 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 See also:meeting between the See also:man—old, isolated, unspeakably sad, with the See also:halo of public fame burning See also: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 See also:melancholy and joy at the sight of Estelle, Berlioz goes to dine with See also:Patti and her See also:family . Patti, on the See also:threshold of her career, pets Berlioz with such uncontrollable See also: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 See also:shoulder, plucking his See also:hair and singing her most joyous songs to the See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 .

Phoenix-squares

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 See also:kind to See also: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 See also:idea " in Beethoven's creations ran See also: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 See also:master of the See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:critical edition of the complete musical works (published by Breitkopf and Hartel) is in ten See also:series . I . Symphonies: Fantastique, Op . 14; Funebre et triomphale, Op . 15, for military See also:band and chorus; Harold en Italie, Op .

16, with See also:

viola See 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 . See also: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 See also:

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 a See 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 See also:dance . X .

Fragments and new discoveries . Adolphe See also:

Julien's See also:biography of Berlioz (1888) first gave a careful See also: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), See also:Louise Pohl (1900), and D . See also:Bernard (trans. by H . M . See also:Dunstan, 1882) . An See also:illuminating See also: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 See also:Strauss (See also:Peters' edition [1906]) .

End of Article: HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869)
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