BERLIOZ, HECTOR. — Composer, b. at Côte-St.-André (Isère) on 11 Dec. 1803, d. in Paris on 8 Mar. 1869. He studied in Paris, first as a pupil of Lesueur, then from 1826 at the Conservatory, despite his family’s hostility. Having won the *Grand Prix de Rome* in 1830, he left the Villa Medici in 1832, returning to Paris where he led a turbulent life and pursued a controversial artistic career, interspersed with numerous journeys abroad. He also established himself as a writer and musical critic, especially in the *Journal des Débats* and the *Gazette musicale de Paris*, an ardent advocate of the artistic tendency of program music. In the religious sphere, his most notable works are the Requiem (1837), the oratorio *L’Enfance du Christ* (1854), and the *Te Deum* (1855). He authored numerous lively literary works, memoirs, and a celebrated treatise on instrumentation and orchestration (1844).
BERLIOZ, HECTOR
BIBL.: E. Hipper, *H. B., l’homme et l’artiste*, Paris 1883; R. F. Boult, *H. B.’s life as written by himself in his letters and memoirs*, London 1903, Italian ed., Rome 1945; P. M. Masson, *H. B.*, Paris 1923; A. Boschot wrote the fundamental biography, *H. B.*, 3 vols., reprint Paris 1948.