Famous Composers Volume 2; Schubert. Louis Spohr. Meyerbeer. Mendelssohn. Schumann. Fr D Ric Fran OIS Chopin. Mikha L IV Novitch Glinka. Hector Berlio

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ... HECTOR BERLIOZ. (1803-1869.) Colossal genius of the eagle's wing! Fierce, unrestrained, ambitious, passionate, With vast capacities for love and hate, Foiled, fostered, ever met by spur and sting, Taught by thy nature's wondrous art to sing, Volcanic in impatience, doomed by Fate, Successful in defeat, to work and wait;--What message hadst thou to the world to bring? A message far too vast for human thought! It was as though thy spirit mounted high And caught the choiring voices of the spheres, And fitted them to earthly harmony; It wakes our wonder, stirs us, causes tears, Yet we who hear it comprehend it not! LOUIS HECTOR BERLIOZ was born in the chill month of Frimaire, in the twelfth year of the French Republic; that is to say, his birthday was Sun-day, December 11, 1803. His birthplace was C6te-Saint-Andre, a tiny village (to use Berlioz's own words) built on the slope of a hill and overlooking a vast plain, rich, golden, green, the silence of which was characterized by a peculiarly dreamy majesty, still further enhanced by the belt of mountains shutting it in on the south and east, and surmounted in the far distance by the gigantic snow-capped peaks of the Alps. His father, of honorable family and considerable wealth, was a health officer, who practised medicine for humanity's sake rather than profit, and enjoyed the love and respect of the humble peasantry, who called him Monsieur Berl. His medical acquirements must have been considerable, for he won a prize for a memorial on chronic diseases that was published in Paris. His was a dreamy and meditative nature, a man free from prejudices of any sort, inclined to the scepticism of the Revolutionary philosophers, though he never interfered with the beliefs of others. In later life ...