13 questions · Music
Hector Berlioz, born in 1803 in La Côte-Saint-André near Grenoble, was meant to become a doctor like his father. But in Paris the medical student fled the dissecting room for the opera house and, against his family's wishes, switched to the Conservatoire. It was the start of a career of battles: official France denied the radical its great posts all his life, and he had to compete for the Prix de Rome four times before finally winning it in 1830. That same year the 26-year-old wrote the work that overturned music history: the 'Symphonie fantastique'. Across five movements, bound together by a recurring 'idée fixe', it tells of a young artist's obsessive love, an opium dream, a march to the scaffold and a witches' sabbath. The trigger was Berlioz's real-life obsession with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson: whom he did later marry, though the marriage proved rather less poetic. With this stroke of genius Berlioz became the father of modern programme music and the boldest orchestrator of his age; his treatise on instrumentation became the standard work, studied by Richard Strauss and Mahler after him. He thought in superlatives: his 'Requiem' calls for four off-stage brass orchestras, and his opera 'Les Troyens', after Virgil's Aeneid, runs over four hours and was never performed complete in his lifetime. Because Paris spurned him, Berlioz earned his living as a feared music critic and celebrated triumphs abroad as a conductor, from London to St Petersburg, while being ridiculed at home. Did you know that his concert overture 'Le Carnaval romain' and the Faust legend 'La Damnation de Faust' are still repertoire pieces today? Berlioz died in Paris in 1869, embittered: full recognition of his work came only in the 20th century.
Practise for freePurFact brings every card back right before you would forget it. That's how knowledge sticks.
Romanticism
He is considered the great radical of French Romanticism.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz was the wildest innovator of French Romanticism: his music struck many contemporaries as shocking.
France
Born in 1803 in La Côte-Saint-André near Grenoble.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz was meant to become a doctor at his father's wish: at the sight of the dissecting room he fled in horror and turned to music.
Symphonie fantastique
Five movements with an opium dream, a march to the scaffold and a witches' sabbath: written at 26.
💡 Did you know? Just three years after Beethoven's death, the 26-year-old Berlioz wrote the „Symphonie fantastique“, a work of breathtaking boldness, including an infernal witches' sabbath.
idee fixe
The theme returns in all five movements: a forerunner of Wagner's leitmotifs.
💡 Did you know? The „idée fixe“ (a theme representing the beloved that runs through the whole symphony) anticipated Wagner's leitmotif technique.
Harriet Smithson
Berlioz saw her as Ophelia in 'Hamlet' and was smitten: the eventual marriage proved less poetic.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz fell in love with the actress Harriet Smithson without knowing her: years later he actually married her, but the marriage failed.
programme music
Music that tells an extra-musical story: Liszt and Strauss built on his foundations.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz is considered the father of programme music: music that tells a specific story or scene.
the treatise on instrumentation
The 'Grand traité d'instrumentation' (1844): Richard Strauss later revised and updated it.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz's textbook on orchestration became a standard work: even Richard Strauss later revised it.
medicine
The doctor's son fled the Paris dissecting room for the opera: against his family's wishes.
💡 Did you know? He had to compete for the Prix de Rome four times before winning it in 1830.
Les Troyens
Over four hours long: it was never performed complete in Berlioz's lifetime.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz's vast opera „Les Troyens“ was never performed in full during his lifetime: a bitter setback.
four off-stage brass orchestras
Placed at the four corners of the hall: at the 'Tuba mirum' the Last Judgement breaks loose.
💡 Did you know? For his „Requiem“, Berlioz demanded, besides a huge orchestra and chorus, four extra brass groups at the corners of the hall, for an apocalyptic sound.
as a music critic
His feared columns still make brilliant reading; meanwhile he triumphed abroad as a conductor.
💡 Did you know? He hated writing criticism: it stole time from composing.
1869
Embittered by the recognition denied him: his fame arrived only in the 20th century.
💡 Did you know? Berlioz died embittered, convinced his work had failed: today he is seen as one of the most original composers of Romanticism.
Foto: Charles Reutlinger · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer whose „Symphonie fantastique“ revolutionised music with its boldness.
💡 Did you know? He founded programme music: music that tells a specific story, here the feverish dreams of a lovesick artist.
Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact
