Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer, conductor, music critic and author, best known for his compositions
Symphonie fantastique and
Grande messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his
Treatise on Instrumentation (1844). He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a conductor, he performed several concerts with more than 1,000 musicians. He also composed around 50 songs.
Between 1830 and 1840, Berlioz wrote many of his most popular and enduring works. The foremost of these are the
Symphonie fantastique (1830),
Harold en Italie (1834), the
Grande messe des morts (Requiem) (1837) and
Roméo et Juliette (1839). Later operatic works include
Benvenuto Cellini and
Les Troyens (The Trojans). His autobiography,
Memoirs, was completed in 1865.
(Adapted from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_B.... Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License:)