In this comprehensive life-and-works study, Hugh Macdonald draws on Berlioz's numerous writings - his Memoires, his critical articles, and his extensive correspondence, including many unpublished documents. Berlioz's provincial upbringing, his enthusiasm for Parisian opera and theatre, his marriage to the actress Harriet Smithson, his activities as composer, critic, and conductor, are covered in a biographical section which concludes with a chapter on his
character. Discussion of the music is chronological, from the time when Berlioz arrived in Paris in 1821 to study medicine, through the peak of French Romanticism in the 1830's, to the compositions of his later years. In a final chapter Hugh Macdonald traces influences on Berlioz's style and examines his
treatment of melody, harmony, and rhythm, and his distinctive orchestral technique.
- ISBN10 0198164831
- ISBN13 9780198164838
- Publish Date 30 November 2000 (first published 1 September 1982)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 17 May 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
- Edition 3rd Revised edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 272
- Language English