BERLIOZ, HECTOR

BERLIOZ, HECTOR. - Composer, b. at Côte-St-André (Isère) on 11 Dec. 1803, d. in Paris on 8 March 1869. He studied in Paris, first as a pupil of Lesueur, then, from 1826, at the conservatory, despite his family's hostility. In 1830 he won the « Grand Prix de Rome », left the Villa Medici in 1832, and returned to Paris, where he led a troubled life and had a contested artistic career, interrupted by numerous journeys abroad. He also established himself as a writer and music critic, especially in the Journal des Débats and the Gazette musicale de Paris, an ardent supporter of the artistic tendency toward programme music. In the religious field, particularly noteworthy are the Requiem (1837), the oratorio L'enfance du Christ (1854), and the Te Deum (1855). He was the author of numerous lively literary works, memoirs, and a celebrated treatise on instrumentation and orchestration (1844).