Posted in: Composition by eddiego65 on November 15th, 2010 | 2 Comments
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was a French Romantic composer and conductor, who made important contributions to the modern orchestra with his book “Treatise on Instrumentation.”
The piano had become the instrument of choice by Romantic composers of the 19th century owing to the popularity of Chopin and Liszt. And Paris was fast becoming the homebase of famous composers and virtuosi around the world. But France seemed to have no homegrown talent to call their own, that is, until the arrival of Hector Berlioz. Not only was he a lone Frenchman in a sea dominated by German and Eastern European composers, but he also suffered from an enormous disadvantage for a musician of the period–he was not a child prodigy and never really learned to play the piano, mainly due to the discouragement by his father who desired him to take up medicine.
Undeterred by his apparent deficiency, Berlioz focused on his strengths instead and composed in the genres he knew best: orchestral and vocal music. Somehow, he was filling the gap that had emerged in the repertoire with mostly piano music getting all the attention, and reviving the tradition of symphonic writing. As a young man, he found the experience of listening to Beethoven’s symphonies to be overwhelming and saw them as starting point.
His first important work was the marvelous Symphonie fantastique (1830), a five-movement symphony encompassing all the trademarks of his style. Berlioz was well read, and adored great romantic literature, even weeping at reading passages by Shakespeare, Goethe, and Byron. Berlioz, who possessed quite a compulsive and melodramatic personality, fell deeply in love with the actress Harriet Smithson after watching her playing the role of Ophelia and declared his undying love so overpassionately that she rejected his advances. So, Berlioz attempted to win her affection by composing the Symphonie fantastique, which is considered one of the most dramatic music ever written. He also uses a recurrent theme in this brilliantly orchestrated symphony known as the idée fixe–representing the object of his desires–a device utilized by later composers for more theatrical coherence.
Symphonie fantastique was an overwhelming success that brought him both acclaim and notoriety. Though he went on to compose more concert overtures, programmatic symphonies and a number of operas, he never really earned the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. It would be almost a century after his death before he was fully appreciated.
His other better known works include Harold en Italie, a symphony with a solo viola part; and the astonishing concert overtures: Les francs-juges, Carnaval romain, and Le Corsaire. For fantastic choral music on a grand scale, there’s Grande messe des morts (Requiem) and La Damnation de Faust. Berlioz also wrote several books, including a Treatise on Instrumentation, and his very entertaining Mémoires, an extremely exaggerated account of his life and loves, written in his own subjective and colorful musical language.
papaleng November 15th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Very educational article. Salamat Ed sa pag-share mo.
Mark Gordon Brown November 15th, 2010 at 11:43 am
a good review of a talented man