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BERLIOZ, HECTOR (1803-1869)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 793 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BERLIOZ, See also:HECTOR (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 Berlioz, was a physician of repute, and by his See also:desire 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 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.

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: BERLIOZ, HECTOR (1803-1869)

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