Romantic Period

French composer who was a principal force in the development of 19th century musical Romanticism.

Born in La Cote-Saint-Andre on December 11, 1803.
Father, a physician who sent him to Paris to study medicine, but Berlioz was horrified by the dissecting room.
Fell in love with Harriet Smithson, a Shakespearean actress and wrote the Symphonie Fantastique in 1830 to depict his passion for her. The program for this symphony, its orchestration and depiction of the weird and diabolical shocked the Parisans, which earned him the Prix de Rome, a prestigious award of the Paris Conservatory.

In the Symphonie Fantastique, he uses idee fixe to represent his beloved who haunts his recurring dream.
His music includes abrupt contrasts between high woodwinds and low strings, snarling brass, and rumbling percussion.
Dynamics fluctuate constantly, with numerous tempo changes.
Melodies have long phrases which take unexpected turns, and often are irregular in lengths. Most of his orchestral works are programmatic by nature. Romeo and Juliet [1839];The Damnation of Faust [1846];The Trojans [1856-58].

Links to other Berlioz sites

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~phillijr/Berlioz.html