Hector Berlioz (1813-1869)
France

As a man distraught by love, illness, instability, failure, and melancholia, Hector Berlioz utilized his talents and genius in music to overcome the hardships in his life and to rise to immorality as a Romantic composer. His parents consisted of a lenient father and a strict mother who both wanted him to adopt a career in medicine despite his budding passion in music. After two years, he dropped out of medical school and pursued classes at the music conservatory in Paris. In 1830, he won the Prix de Rome competition after three unsuccessful attempts. During these years he supported himself through musical journalism, which thoroughly disinterested him as he considered writing to be tedious and he later became a conductor. However, he wrote the Treatise on Instrumentation, which forever changed the methods of orchestration. Also in 1830, he earned the respect of Franz Liszt through the performance of his most famous symphony, Symphonie Fantastique (1830). Berlioz was also a great admirer of Goethe, Shakespeare, the English Romantics, Beethoven, and Mozart, yet much of his work defied the Classical tradition. Following his marriage to Harriet Smithson in 1833, Berlioz composed a plethora of music including Harold in Italy (1834), Romeo and Juliet (1839) and Le damnation de Faust (1846). However, his music was not accepted well by the public, for the growing popularity of Wagner and the German Romantics overshadowed him. Yet his music was original and respected by many of his contemporaries, and he mastered Romantic counterpoint and contributed to the format of program music and orchestration through his diverse works and writings. Following the deaths of his wife, mistress, son, and father, Berlioz fell ill and died in January of 1869.

Works

Orchestral
- Waverley (1828)
- Rob Roy (1831)
- Le roi Lear (King Lear, 1831)
- Symphonie fantastique (1830)
- Harold en Italie (Harold in Italy, 1834)
- Romeo et Juliette (1839)
- Le Corsair (1831)
- Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale (1840)
Songs
- Les Nuits d'été (1841)
- Roman Carnival Overture (1844)
Choral music
- Requiem Mass (1837)
- Te Deum (Hymn of Praise, 1849)
- La damnation de Faust (The Damnation of Faust, 1846)
- oratorio L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ, 1854)
- Grand messe des morts Requiem (1837)
Operas
- Les Troyens (The Trojans, 1858)
- Béatrice et Bénédict (1862)
- Les Francs-juges (1826)
- Benvenuto Cellini (1837)

Additional Information:
The Magic of Berlioz
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~phillijr/Berlioz.html
Complete List of Works
http://www.philclas.polygram.nl/class/ca-b/berlioz.htm

Sources:

Asselbergs, Doug. Hector Berlioz. 1995. < http://home.pon.net/dougie/berlioz.htm>

Longyear, Ray M. Nineteenth-Century Romanticism in Music. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1988.

Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.