BERLIOZ THE REBEL

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1935, Page 19 (Supplement)

BERLIOZ THE REBEL

BIRTHPLACE HONOURS HIM. GREAT FRENCH COMPOSER. France has now one more of those small museums with ■ which she delights to honour her great men. It is named after Berlioz, and is at La-Cote-Saint-Andre, where he was bom in 1803. T.rniis Hector Berlioz was a doctor’s son. As a child he was so unhappy under the military regime introduced into schools by Napoleon that his parents took him back home. Roaming in the attic one day he came upon a flute, and tried to play it. It was a great day for him; he had discovered how music was made. Later he found a friend to teach him to play the guitar. ■ Hector’s father wanted him to be a doctor, and when he was 16 sent him to Paris to attend the school of medicine. But Hector went to the Conservatorie and, as his father refused to pay for him there, gave lessons in the evenings to earn his living. Romanticism was in the air; young poets and writers were feeling their own way. Berlioz, attending a performance of Hamlet by some English players, was enthralled by this living drama, and joined those who rebelled against the classical tradition. His Fantastic Symphony, which he paid to have performed, was well received, but his compositions ran too much against the accepted canons of day to be financially successful. Theatre after ■ theatre refused his operas, and then, toward the end of his life, Paris suddenly “discovered” the works everyone had neglected, and his fame spread rapidly.