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Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869) Background Hector Berlioz was born in the French province of Isere in 1803. His father, a provincial doctor, was an atheist, while his mother was a staunch Catholic. He showed an early liking for music, and at age 13 he began learning the flute, flageolet, and guitar, but not the piano. Early experience His father enrolled him in a Paris medical school in 1821, but after a year his attentions turned to music. In 1822, he applied for music lessons, and began to compose an opera. He gave up medicine in 1824, with a macabre visit to a dissecting-room, vividly described in his superb Memoirs, possibly providing an incentive. In 1825, Berlioz's father agreed to keep up his allowance, but due to his mother's disapproval of his lifestyle, it was cut off in 1826. In that year, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, and studied under Jean-Francois le Sueur. First passions In 1827, he worked as a chorus singer to earn money. In September that year, he saw Shakespeare's Hamlet for the first time. He instantly fell in love with Harriet Smithson, the Irish actress who played Ophelia, but his passion was at first unreciprocated - she thought he was just a madman. In 1828, he took lessons in English so he could read Shakespeare, and in the same year began writing music criticism. During the revolution of 1830, his most famous work, the Symphonie Fantastique, was completed. Subtitled 'Episodes in the Life of an Artist', it is a programmatic and autobiographical work inspired by his obsession with Smithson, and possibly his brief affair with Camille Moke, who later abandoned him for the wealthy piano manufacturer Ignace Pleyel. It was first performed on 5th December that year. Among the audience was Franz Liszt, who he had met the day before. Liszt was highly impressed with the piece, and they became good friends. |
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Marriage to Harriet In November 1832, Harriet Smithson's career was failing, and she was in financial difficulty. She saw Berlioz as a way out of debt, and she married him on 3rd October, 1833, with Liszt as a witness. A performance of Berlioz's music in 1833 caught the attention of Niccolo Paganini, the great violin virtuoso. Paganini lavished praise upon Berlioz and commissioned him to write a work for viola and orchestra. When Berlioz sent him the first movement of the new work, Paganini rejected it because it didn't give him enough to play. Eventually the piece became Harold in Italy, a symphony for viola and orchestra, and the other three movements were completed in 1834. This was followed by the Grand Messe de Morts (the Requiem) in 1837; Romeo and Juliet, a 'dramatic symphony', in 1839; and the Symphonie funebre et triomphale in 1840. Despair and heartbreak Berlioz's son Louis was born in 1834, but his marriage was already in trouble. Harriet was driven to alcohol by the collapse of her acting career, prompting Berlioz to begin an affair with the singer Marie Recio. The marriage finally broke up in 1841. Berlioz completed the dramatic cantata La Damnation de Faust in 1846, but it was a failure in Paris. The Te Deum and the oratorio L'Enfance du Christ followed in the years 1850 and 1854, and in 1856 Berlioz embarked on his massive opera Les Troyens, based on Virgil's Aeneid. Attempts to have it staged in Paris were futile, due to the work's immense scale. Despite these setbacks, Berlioz was beginning to receive international recognition for his music, and his writings, particularly his Treatises on harmony and orchestration, became standard textbooks. In 1862, Berlioz completed his last work, the comic opera Beatrice et Benedict, based on Shakespeare. Marie died in the same year, and in 1867 his son Louis died of yellow fever. Berlioz became ill in January 1869, and died in March that year. A true Romantic Berlioz was the quintessential Romantic artist. His life featured unrequited love, dramatic triumphs, and dismal failures - all the hallmarks of Romantic greatness. The wild emotional turbulence of his life is reflected in what Wagner described as his 'devilishly confused musical idiom'. He was the most innovative symphonist of the early Romantic era, with the programmes and hidden messages woven into his music anticipating the tone-poems of Liszt and Strauss. His revolutionary use of orchestral colour inspired just about every major symphonic composer who followed in his wake, most notably Gustav Mahler. But at the heart of his music lies a Beethovenian strength and unity, and a natural feel for Classically pure melodies. Back to top of page |
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