Hector Berlioz - French composer: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Hector Berlioz remains in the history of music as a bright representative of the romantic era of the 19th century, who managed to connect music with other art forms.

Childhood

Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803 in a small French town near Grenoble. The mother of the future composer was a zealous Catholic, and his father was a staunch atheist. Louis-Joseph Berlioz did not recognize any authorities and tried to instill his views in children. It was he who influenced the formation of the vital interests of the eldest child in the family - Hector. By profession a doctor, Louis-Joseph was interested in art, philosophy, and literature. The father instilled in the boy a love of music and taught him to play the guitar and flute. However, he saw the future of his son in medicine. That is why Berlioz Sr. did not teach Hector to play the piano, believing that this could distract him from his main goal - to become a doctor.

Folk songs, myths, the chants of the church choir in the local monastery became vivid impressions of the future composer's childhood. The real interest in music was fully manifested in Hector at the age of 12. Spending a lot of time in his father's library, he received musical knowledge.on one's own. This is how Berlioz the composer was gradually formed, who was supposed to make a revolution in music.

Study

At the age of 18, after graduating from high school in his native Grenoble and receiving a bachelor's degree, Hector Berlioz, at the insistence of his father, went to Paris to enter the medical faculty. The passion for music did not leave the young man, and he spent more time in the library of the Paris Conservatory than in the classrooms of the university. Moreover, having visited the autopsy for the first time, the young man began to feel disgust for medicine. Later, Hector Berlioz began to take lessons from a professor at the conservatory in the theory of composition. The first public performance took place in 1825. The Parisians heard the Solemn Mass. Berlioz's life changed little after that, as the young composer could not immediately win the hearts of the inhabitants of the French capital. Moreover, many critics were extremely negative about the Mass.

Despite this, the young man, finally realizing that music for him is the main occupation of life, left medicine in 1826 and entered the conservatory, which he successfully graduated in 1830.

Journalism

The first work in journalism at Berlioz appeared in 1823. Gradually, he enters the artistic life of Paris. There is a rapprochement with Balzac, Dumas, Heine, Chopin and other prominent representatives of the creative intelligentsia. For a long time, Berlioz tried himself in the field of music criticism.

Life in Paris

In 1827 inAn English theater troupe toured the capital of France. Berlioz fell in love with the talented actress of the troupe Harriet Smithson. She was very popular with the public, and the little-known conservatory student had little interest in her. Wanting to draw attention to himself, Berlioz began to achieve fame in the musical field. At this time, he writes cantatas, songs and other works, but fame does not come, and Harriet does not pay attention to Berlioz. In material terms, his life is not arranged. Official music critics did not favor Berlioz; his works were often met with misunderstanding by his contemporaries. Three times he was denied a scholarship that gave him the right to travel to Rome. However, after graduating from the conservatory, Berlioz nevertheless received it.

Marriage and personal life

Having received a scholarship, Berlioz leaves for Italy for three years. In Rome, he meets the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

In 1832, while in Paris, Berlioz again met Harriet Smithson. By this time, her theatrical life had come to a close. Public interest in the performances of the English troupe began to decline. In addition, the actress had an accident - she broke her leg. Now the young woman is no longer the windy coquette she was before, and she is no longer afraid of the routine of marriage.

A year later they get married, but Hector Berlioz very soon realizes that lack of money is one of the most insidious enemies of love. He has to work all day to provide for his family, and only one night is left for creativity.

BIn general, the personal life of the famous composer can hardly be called happy. After he left his studies at the Faculty of Medicine, there was a break with his father, who wanted to see only a doctor in his son. As for Harriet, she was not ready to endure hardship, and they soon parted. Having married for the second time, Hector Berlioz, whose biography is full of tragic pages, does not indulge in the joys of a calm family life for long and remains a widower. To top it off, the only son from his first marriage dies in a shipwreck.

Berlioz as a conductor

The only thing that saves a musician from despair is his creativity. Berlioz toured Europe extensively as a conductor, performing both his own works and those of his contemporaries. He has the greatest success in Russia, where he comes twice. He performs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Hector Berlioz: works

The composer's work did not receive a worthy assessment from his contemporaries. Only after the death of Berlioz it became clear that the world had lost a musical genius, whose works were full of faith in the triumph of justice and humanistic ideas.

The most famous works of the author were the symphonies "Harold in Italy" and "Corsair", inspired by the passion for Byron's work during his life in Italy, and "Romeo and Juliet", in which he expressed his understanding of the tragedy of Shakespeare's heroes. The composer created a lot of such works that were written on the topic of the day. For example, such was the cantata "Greek Revolution", dedicated to the fight against the Ottomanyoke.

But the main work, thanks to which Hector Berlioz became famous, is the Fantastic Symphony, written in 1830. It was after its premiere that the most progressive critics turned their attention to Berlioz.

According to the author's intention, a young musician tries to poison himself because of unrequited love. However, the dose of opium is small, and the hero falls into a dream. In his sick imagination, feelings and memories turn into musical images, and the girl becomes a melody heard from everywhere. The idea of the symphony is largely autobiographical, and many contemporaries considered the girl Harriet to be the prototype.

Now you know what biography Berlioz had. The composer was ahead of his time, and the full depth of his work was revealed to classical music lovers and experts only after many years. In addition, the composer became an innovator in the field of orchestration and in the sharing of some instruments that had not previously been used in solo parts.