Hector Berlioz: The Man. The Myth. The Incessant Orgy-Riddled Finales.

A few Februaries ago, some of my friends and I decided that February 14th, for the sake of the one single guy at the time, must become a better holiday.  And thus, International Hector Berlioz Day was born.  It was our day to recognize that overly-fixated, whining, over-the-top, badass, and generally awesome French romantic composer of at least one piece, and possibly some other pieces.  Now, for your enjoyment, my crash-course on why Berlioz is pretty much the best thing in the history of ever, mostly either as my own knowledge or stolen from Wikipedia.

Berlioz, unlike Mozart, wasn't super-pro at the piano the moment he came out of the womb.  He didn't even play it... the PIANO.  In fact, he played the guitar and the flute.  That already implies volumes about his personality.  He wrote some random chamber pieces at a young age, but nothing too great.  And he had the hots for his 18-year-old neighbour when he was 12.  This spiritually launched his career as a starving romantic, moving from one fixation to the next, breaking down crying at awesome performances of Beethoven symphonies, and standing up and yelling in rage during bad performances of Beethoven symphonies.

So, he went off to be a doctor, but then saw someone dissecting a body (presumably in a class and not just on the side of the road), and jumped out of the window in disgust.  Being introduced to the music of Christoph Gluck, perhaps the least attractively named composer at that time, got Berlioz even more into composition as a goal.  So, he goes off to study music.

During a production of "Hamlet," he instantly becomes infatuated (not an uncommon trait for Monsieur Berlioz) with Harriet Smithson, playing Ophelia.  Yeah, the insane chick.  You know, the kind of person one usually DOESN'T want to become attracted to.  So, he sends her overly-mushy love letters, and she (obviously) thinks he's a total creep.  He ends up dedicating Symphonie Fantastique (yeah, that one piece that he wrote) to her, but goes and gets engaged some Camille Moke chick instead.  Oh, and I believe Fantastique was the first of several pieces he wrote to have a movement/scene based on an orgy.  In particular, this one's a DEMONIC orgy.  So that's cool.

Now, here's the infamous story that our Berlioz fan club just can't get enough of.  Berlioz goes to live in Rome for a little while, and absolutely hates it.  He receives a letter from Camille's father, saying the engagement is terminated and she's going to marry some piano builder.  Yep, the PIANOS are back.  So, here's his plan:  he buys a french maid outfit, several poisons, and steals a pistol with three shots, so that he can shoot her, her lover, and himself, and use poison if the pistol jams.  But, he gets on the train to Paris, and (depending on who's telling the story) either gets kicked off and goes back to Rome, or gets off, realizes he forgot his costume on the train, and gives up and goes back to Rome.

So, Berlioz holds a concert where Symphonie Fantastique is performed (you know, that one piece he wrote).  Guess who shows up?  Harriet Smithson.  Oh, and CHOPIN, LISZT, PAGANINI, AND VICTOR HUGO.  But mostly Harriet Smithson, I guess.  Anyways, that happens.  And he and Harriet somehow get together, even though they don't speak the same language, and he was a creepy stalker like a few years ago.  So that was a thing.

Paganini, being impressed, asked him to write a viola concerto.  Thus Harold in Italy exists.  Yeah, you know Italy, that one place Berlioz hated.  Anyways, Paganini thought that it was too easy, and didn't play it.  We'd like to think that it's a second piece Berlioz wrote, but if you listen to it, it's pretty much Fantastique with all the bars in a different order, and the viola being more important.  Paganini DID end up paying Berlioz, though, so he could pay off some debts Harriet worked up.  Oh, and then they broke up.  Smooth.  But fine for him, he was already starting to get together with some actress by the name of Marie Recio, who, according to Google Images, wasn't quite as attractive.  For some reason, he ended up providing Harriet financial aid the rest of her life, which, as a composer, would have been impossible, had Mikhail Glinka not showed him how to make a fortune by composing... IN RUSSIA.

And, that's most of the entertaining, non-boring-ol'-history facts that I know about the most awesome of composer figures ever.  Not most awesome composer, that would be Tchaikovsky.  And not the composer with the most awesome figure, that would be Ravel.  Or Fanny Mendelssohn, I guess.  Not a lot to choose from in terms of women, assuming we limit ourselves to mainstream classical composers.  Berlioz, on the other had, is just full of awesome.  From rumors of him hating Richard Wagner, to him writing an opera so grand, they couldn't afford to put it on and instead put on one by Wagner, the stories of this guy just seem to keep flooding in.  Check him out sometime.

Maurice Ravel is bringing sexy back. Yeah.