$2.00
HECTOR BERLIOZ, often called "The Father of Modern Orchestration," was born at La Cote, St. Andre, near Grenoble, France, on December 11, 1803. His father, Louis Berlioz, was a country doctor with a large practice—something of an author too, and altogether an intelligent man. Mme. Berlioz was a typical woman of the mountains—ardent, affectionate, narrow-minded, devoutly religious, and intensely suspicious of the world and its temptations. The father opposed music as a profession, and his mother protested against young Hector's musical pursuits So through the years vghen he was shaping his career, both his parents were against him.
But music took possession of the boy. He found a flageolet in a neglected drawer in his home, and made such terrible noises with it that his father, in self-defense, taught him to play it. To this succeeded a flute and later a guitar, after which practical instruction came to a standstill. He never mastered the piano. He could crash out a few chords, but he was never a finished player. It is noticeable that two great masters of modern orchestration, Berlioz and Wagner, were both indifferent piano performers.
Berlioz studied harmony after a fashion, and pursued in his own way a course of study of the works of various musicians.
His father tried to make a doctor of him, promising him a beautiful flute if he would study medicine. Accordingly, in 1822, Hector set out for Paris with his cousin Robert, bound for the medical school. But the first day in the dissecting room was enough for him. He gave one glance around at the accumulated horrors, jumped from the window, and returned home, declaring that he would rather die than dissect.
Then he took to the Public Library of the Conservatoire and began to devour the.music scores he found there, especially those of the master composer Gluck. His father stormed, argued, but all to no purpose. The ugly duckling had escaped from the barnyard, and was beginning to transform itself into a swan.
Berlioz found a helpful music teacher in Lesueur, Professor of Composition in the Conservatoire. Lessons began in earnest and Berlioz was a quick pupil. Suffering under the displeasure of his parents' and the consequent cutting off of his allowance, Berlioz fell upon hard times. He lived in a garret and dined off bread and dates, and worked day and night composing music and teaching a few pupils.
His first attempts at musical composition were declared unplayable. He suffered the usual hard fortune of geniuses who live and labor in advance of their times. He tried three times for the coveted Prix (pree) de Rome (Prize of Rome—a great distinction much sought by artists each year), finally obtaining the second prize. 1829 was an eventful year. Berlioz came across Goethe's "Faust," devoured it, and produced some musical material from it which he used seventeen years later in his great work, "The Damnation of Faust." Then came the composition of the Sym-phonie Fantastique, which was performed and which made an impression, but was not understood.
Then came the Revolution of 1830, and on its flood Berlioz at last sailed into success. The Revolution upset many notions in art and literature as well as in life, and Berlioz's bold, independent musical expression then found a ready and interested hearing.
About this time, Berlioz carried on an ardent and stormy romance with the popular and beautiful Irish actress, Miss Smithson. After alternating conditions of hope and despair, he married Miss Smithson in October, 1833. They were both terribly poor, but "she was mine" said Berlioz, "and we defied the world."
The years that followed were happy ones. Success began to smile on Berlioz. He filled several positions as orchestral director, and, in that capacity, he attained a distinction shared by few. His compositions were daring flights of a new and gifted musical genius. He carried mannerism to the point almost of caricature. His conducting was distinctly individual. His temperament was intensely ardent. He fairly flung himself into his art and swept his orchestra enthusiastically along with him. As a composer, Berlioz ranks with Beethoven, Wagner, and a few other of the great masters of instrumentation in the world's history. As an orchestral conductor he possessed in a large degree the qualities Of the inspired leader. He had a complete knowledge of the strength and weakness of each instrument, great skill in the treatment and combination of them, ready invention, and boundless audacity.
He died in Paris on March 8, 1869, and was buried in the cemetery Montmartre, the distinguished composers Gounod and Ambroise Thomas being among the pallbearers.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. S. No. I, SERIAL No. 125
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION. INC.
