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Self-revelations of tormented great composer; musical life in Paris, Wagner and other contemporaries, musical opinions, much more. 11 plates.
In this delightful and now classic narrative, written by the brilliant composer and critic Hector Berlioz, readers are made privy to 25 highly entertaining evenings with a fascinating group of distracted performers.
In this masterpiece of "program" music — a genre invented by the composer — an obsessed musician is overcome by increasingly bizarre visions of his lover. This miniature score version is handy, inexpensive, and perfect for use in the classroom or concert hall.
A captivating and sumptuously illustrated biography, Berlioz is not only a complete account of the Romantic era composer, but also an acute analysis of his compositions and a description of his work as a conductor and critic. 139 halftones, 3 maps, 160 musical examples.
The Life of Berlioz situates the celebrated French musician in the vibrant and highly politicized musical culture of the periods of the Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy, Second Republic, and Second Empire in which he lived and worked as composer, conductor, concert manager, and writer. The author of the Symphonie fantastique was indeed possessed of a fertile and fantastical imagination; but the common image of Berlioz as a misunderstood and mistreated genius obscures both the solidity of his work as a musical architect and the reality of his position as one sometimes favored by those in power. Berlioz is the quintessential romantic composer by dint of the conspicuous intermingling of art and life that marks his musical and literary output. Studying this away from the subjective sentimentality that can still mar studies of the composer in France, serves only to enhance the uncommon radiance of his music and uncommon esprit of his art.
French composer Hector Berlioz believed in love at first sight. When he was 23, he attended a performance of Shakespeare's play Hamlet and fell head over heels in love with Harriet Smithson, an English actress who had a leading role. Harriet didn't show any interest in him. She ignored his letters. When he tried to meet her backstage she ordered the guard to throw him out. Berlioz was hurt and angry. He wanted revenge. He got it by murdering Harriet-musically. She inspired Symphonie fantastique, his most famous work. The hero kills his beloved, is executed for the crime, and the symphony ends with a bizare dance of ghosts, goblins and other monsters. In real life, Berlioz met Harriet several years later. He put on a special concert for her that included a performance of Symphonie fantastique. Harriet was impressed. Soon she fell in love with him and they were married. Did they live happily ever after? Book jacket.