Hector Berlioz papers, 1825-1994

Louis Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869), French composer conductor and writer on music, was born at La Cote Saint Andre near Grenoble. As a boy he learnt the flute, guitar, and, from treatises alone, harmony. He never studied the piano, his first compositions were romances and small chamber pieces. In 1821 he left La Cote Saint Andre to study medicine in Paris - the career chosen for him by his father. However, after two years he abandoned medicine and devoted the rest of his life to the composition of music and writing on the subject. Berlioz was a major force in the development of musical form during the Romantic era. He established program music as the romantic musical form, and started the genre of the symphonic poem. Berlioz stands out for his innovative approach in almost all areas of composition. He played a decisive role in the development of program music and modern orchestration, emancipating the procedure of orchestration for generations of later composers. As a musical critic he admired above all Gluck and Beethoven, expressed doubt about Wagner, and fought endlessly against the second-rate. Among the most powerful influences on him were Shakespeare, whose plays were to inspire three major works, and the Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, whom he idolized, pursued and, after a bizarre courtship, eventually married in 1833. Beethoven's symphonies too made a strong impact along with Goethe's Faust and the works of the English Romantics such as Moore, Scott and Byron.