HECTOR BERLIOZ 1803-1869

If the deaf Beethoven was the first great composer who actually made his living as a composer, (rather than performer/conductor) Berlioz the first who played not standard instrument AT ALL

His father a country doctor who sent him to Paris to study medicine--B. so disgusted by dissecting room, where rats were nibbling at scraps, that he LEAPED OUT THE WINDOW and went to the Paris Conservatory of Music instead...

[A typically Romantic story] -- emotionality

More than any other composer (except Wagner), B. “thought the unthinkable” in music:
his grandiose program symphonies had NO PRECEDENT

Only instr. he played well was guitar, and on that he knew only a few chords...
His imagination for orchestral tone color was extraordinary

LIKE ALMOST ALL ROMANTIC COMPOSERS, INSPIRED BY LITERARY MODELS (esp. Shakespeare)

Two unhappy marriages: Harriet Smithson the first

In spite of suffering from ridicule from the musical establishment (on the one hand) and wretched health (on the other), it was a TRIUMPH OF HIS PERSONALITY that he managed to get most of his ENORMOUS compositions performed in Paris (a musically conservative city).

Throughout his life supported himself AS A MUSICAL JOURNALIST (critic, etc.)--was a master at this

His Memoirs one of the most delightful books ever written about music--also wrote one of the most important treatises on conducting and orchestration--one of the FIRST GREAT CONDUCTORS

His last years spent in physical PAIN and DEPRESSION After 1862, listened to little music, composed none (d. in ‘69)