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HECTOR BERLIOZ

Hector Berlioz was a French composer. He was born in 1803 and died in 1869. He gave up medicine to study music at the Paris Conservatoire, where he gained the first prize in 1830 with his cantata Sardanapale. For about two years he studied in Italy, and when on his return he began to produce his larger works, he found himself compelled to take up the pen both in defence of his principles and for his own better maintenance.

As critic of the Journal des Debats and feuilletonist he displayed scarcely less originality than in his music, his chief literary works being the Traite d'Instrumentation, 1844; Voyage Musical, 1845; Les Soirees d'Orchestre, 1853; and A travers Chant, 1862. His musical works belong to the Romantic school, and are specially noteworthy for the resource they display in orchestral colouring. The more important are Harold en Italie; Episode de la Vie d'un Artiste, and Le Retour a la Vie; Romeo and Juliette, 1834; Damnation de Faust, 1846; the operas Benvenuto Cellini, Beatrice and Benedict, and Les Troy-ens; L'Enfance du Christ, and the Requiem. He married an English actress, Miss Smithson, but latterly lived apart from her. After his death appeared Memoires written by himself.
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