163
Hector Berlioz conducts a deafening
orchestra in a caricature published
by the French newspaper L’Illustration,
in 1845. Behind him, members of the
audience hold their ears.See also: The Four Seasons 92–97 ■ Faust Symphony 176 –17 7 ■ The Ring
Cycle 180 –187 ■ Also sprach Zarathustra 192–193 ■ Das Lied von der Erde 198–201(represented by a recurring melody
Berlioz called the idée fixe) imposes
itself upon his vision everywhere
he goes, such as at a ball and even
in the country, where the sound of
thunder seems to symbolize his
gloomy state of mind.
Determined to poison himself
with opium, he finds instead
that the dose merely induces
nightmares. In the first of these, he
imagines he has been condemned
to death for murdering his beloved:
at the end of the “March to theScaffold,” he is executed. In the
second nightmare, he dreams
that he is at a Witches’ Sabbath
and sees his beloved joining in
the grisly spectacle.Lasting influence
Other composers emulated Berlioz’s
combination of music and story-
telling, notably Franz Liszt in A
Faust Symphony and 12 symphonic
poems (one-movement pieces in
the programmatic genre), including
Mazeppa and Hamlet. Although
some major composers, including
Bruckner and Brahms, avoided the
form, others such as Tchaikovsky,
César Franck, Elgar, and Richard
Strauss mined its possibilities
inventively and exhaustively. ■Hector Berlioz
The son of a doctor, Berlioz
was born at La Côte-Saint-
André, in southeastern
France, in 1803. At 12, he
began studying music, and
at 17, he moved to Paris to
study at the Conservatoire.
In 1833, on his fifth attempt,
Berlioz won the Prix de Rome
(a prestigious scholarship).
By then, he had produced his
Symphonie fantastique to
impress the actress Harriet
Smithson, whom he later
married. In Paris, he enjoyed
limited success as a composer
and so also worked as a
journalist. From 1842, he
toured abroad, finding
audiences in Russia, England,
and Germany more receptive.
He longed for success in the
opera house, but his opera
Benvenuto Cellini (1838)
failed, and his masterpiece
Les Troyens (1858) had only
a partial production during
his lifetime. Suffering
from Crohn’s disease and
depression, he died in 1869.Other key works1837 Grande Messe des morts
(Requiem)
1839 Roméo et Juliette
1856–1858 Les TroyensROMANTIC 1810 –1920
US_162-163_Berlioz.indd 163 26/03/18 1:00 PM