English:
Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, between Lyon and Grenoble. His father was a physician, and young Hector was sent to Paris to study medicine at the age of eighteen. Berlioz was horrified by the process of dissection, and, despite his father's disapproval, he abandoned his career path in medicine to study music a year later. He then attended the Paris Conservatoire, studying opera and composition.
He became identified early on with the French Romantic movement. Among his friends were writers such as Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, and Honoré de Balzac. Later, Théophile Gautier wrote, "Hector Berlioz seems to me to form with Hugo and Delacroix, the Trinity of Romantic Art."
Berlioz is said to have been innately romantic, experiencing emotions deeply from early childhood. This manifested itself in his weeping at passages of Virgil as a child, and later in his love affairs. At the age of 23, his unrequited (at first) love for the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Constance Smithson was the inspiration for his Symphonie fantastique. They were married in 1833 with Franz Liszt and Heinrich Heine as witnesses. They divorced nine years later. In 1830, the same year as the symphony's premiere, Berlioz won the Prix de Rome.
Berlioz's letters were considered so overly passionate by Smithson that she initially refused his advances. The symphony which these emotions are said to have inspired was received as startling and vivid. The autobiographical nature of this piece of program music was also considered sensational at the time, a mere 3 years after Beethoven's death. After his return to Paris from his two years study in Rome, he finally married Smithson when she had finally attended a performance of the Symphonie Fantastique. She quickly realized that it was his depiction of his passionate letters to her. However, after only a few years, the relationship quickly fell apart. (Kamien 242)
During his lifetime, Berlioz was more famous as a conductor than a composer. He regularly toured Germany and England where he conducted operas and symphonic music, both his own and music composed by others. Virtuoso violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini commissioned Berlioz to compose a viola concerto, intending to premiere it as soloist. This became the symphony for viola and orchestra, Harold in Italy. However, Paganini changed his mind when he saw the first sketches for the work. Although he did not premiere the piece, Berlioz's memoirs recount that once Paganini heard it, he knelt before Berlioz and declared his genius, and the next day offered him 20,000 francs. With this money, Berlioz was able to quit for a while his work as a critic to focus on writing the "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette (symphony) for voices, chorus and orchestra, whose "love scene" remained Berlioz' favourite piece of his own.
Hector Berlioz is buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre with his two wives, Harriet Smithson (died 1854) and Marie Recio (died 1862).
-Wikipedia
Francais:
Hector Berlioz est un compositeur, un écrivain et un critique français, né le 11 décembre 1803 à La Côte-Saint-André en Isère, mort le 8 mars 1869 à Paris.
Il est considéré comme l'un des plus grands représentants du romantisme européen, bien qu'il récusât le terme de « romantique » qui ne signifiait rien à ses yeux. Il se définissait en fait comme un compositeur classique. Sa musique eut la réputation de ne pas respecter les lois de l'harmonie, accusation qui ne résiste pas à une lecture approfondie de ses partitions. On y découvre, paradoxalement, que Berlioz respecte les fondements historiques de l'harmonie datant du XVIe siècle (règles régissant les mouvements contraires et conjoints), mais qu'il s'affranchit parfois des règles supplémentaires apparues plus tardivement et esthétiquement discutables (règles de modulation cadentielle entre autres)
