Music Appreciation: Hector Berlioz And Mozart

Lauren McDonald

Music Appreciation

Professor Greene

12 Oct 2016

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was a French composer his ideals of the 19th century Romanticism in musical creations such as “Symphonie Fantastique” and “La Damnation De Faust”. His father wanted him to be in the medical field he turned his back to that to pursue his musical career. In 1826, Berlioz enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. Where he started his music career. He became successful in 1830 with “Symphonie Fantastique”. Berlioz was a huge contributor to the modern orchestra with one of his greatest works, “Treatise on Instrumentation”. He works influenced the further development of the Romanticism, his pieces influenced composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,

Berlioz also presents a particular difficulty of musicianship of being closer to the true sources of music than to its German, italian, or French conventions. His melody is abundant and extended and is often disconcerting to the lover of four-bar phrases.As George Benard Shaw said “Call no conductor sensitive in the highest degree to musical impressions until you have heard him in Berlioz and Mozart.” Being compared to Mozart is a great thing, because honestly nowadays everyone knows who Mozart is no one would really pull out that they knew who Berlioz is. Later in Berlioz composing career he became a very Influential music critic. He wrote about Giacomo Meyerbeer, Mikhail Glinka, Paganini, Liszt and other musicians. He completed the opera “Benvenuto Cellini” which took four years from 1834-1838. Later in 1838 his “Harold en Italie” was performed at the Paris Conservatoire. After being gone in Belgium and Germany, Berlioz returned to paris. His friend came up with the idea that they should do concerts in Russia. Berlioz was invited to Russia twice, each tour brought him financial gain beyond his expectations. The Requiem of 1837, requested compose of another work for a public ceremony “Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale” for military band, chorus,and strings, for the 10th anniversary of the July Revolution(1840). After many

He composed some very good music that is still played today in classrooms all over the world. Like what was said in the paper earlier Hector Berlioz was a great french composer that had a huge contributor to Romanticism. Hope this paper let you have a better outlook on his life from early childhood to his death and everything