Time is a great teacher. Unfortunately, it kills all its students."

Hector Berlioz (1860)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hector Berlioz originally trained to practice medicine, but after graduating from medical school, decided to pursue music instead, much to his parents' distaste. He first gained the attention of the music community as a critic, decrying the influence of Rossini and other Italian composers on French opera. He began composing on his own, and entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1826. He submitted several compositions in attempts to win the "Prix de Rome," a prestigious music award, which he finally did in 1830 with a conservative cantata called "La Mort de Sardanapale."

It was also around this time he developed a passion for Shakespeare, and in particular, a Shakespearean actress named Harriet Smithson, one of several women with whom Berlioz became obsessed throughout his life.

Berlioz was in Paris during the July Revolution. He later recalled composing while listening to bullets ricochet outside his apartment, and walking around the city with a pistol, just in case. His most famous work, Symphonie Fantastique, premiered that same year, and was equally revolutionary, with a programmatic structure and a number of extended techniques, or instruments being used in non-traditional ways to produce unique sounds.

Some examples of extended techniques include:

• Pizzicato: String instruments pluck the strings instead of using the bow.
• Con Sordino: Brass or string instruments use a mute to alter the sound of the instrument.
• Col Legno: String instruments flip their bows over and tap the strings with the wood.
• Glissando: Vocalists, strings, and trombones can slide from one pitch to another. This technique can be replicated in other brass and woodwind instruments by manipulating the embouchure.

Symphonie Fantastique also includes one of the first examples of a composer reaching back into music history for material: the fifth movement prominently features the Dies Irae, a Gregorian Chant used at requiem masses.

After winning the Prix de Rome, Berlioz travelled to Italy and was engaged to a woman named Marie Moke, but she broke up with him and got engaged to another man. Berlioz bought a disguise, several vials of poison, a brace of pistols, and made plans to murder them both, along with Marie's mother, referred to in his plans as "the hippopotamus." Fortunately, he eventually changed his mind.

Berlioz returned to Paris the next year. Harriet Smithson finally accepted an invitation to hear one of his concerts, and was impressed by the company he kept, with friends including Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Niccolò Paganini, and even authors such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. They were married, Paganini paid off Berlioz's debts after hearing a performance of "Harold in Italy," and Berlioz's symphony "Roméo et Juliette" was a financial success.

Throughout the remainder of his career, Berlioz struggled to be accepted in France's more conservative musical culture, and found more success abroad, especially in Germany. His wife died in 1854 and Berlioz married his mistress, but she died in 1862. He continued composing in an avant-garde style, notably writing an opera called Les Troyens, which was never fully staged in Berlioz's lifetime, and a depressed Berlioz retired from composing after this, though he continued to conduct and critique. His health deteriorated throughout the 1860s and after stomach issues and a stroke, he died in 1869.