Hector Berlioz

Berlioz was born on 11 December 1803, the eldest child of Louis Berlioz [fr] (1776–1848), a physician, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette Joséphine, née Marmion (1784–1838). His birthplace was the family home in the commune of La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, in south-eastern France. His parents had five more children, three of whom died in infancy; their surviving daughters, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout their lives. Berlioz's father, a respected local figure, was a progressively minded doctor credited as the first European to practise and write about acupuncture. He was an agnostic with a liberal outlook; his wife was a strict Roman Catholic of less flexible views. After briefly attending a local school when he was about ten, Berlioz was educated at home by his father. He recalled in his Mémoires that he enjoyed geography, especially books about travel, to which his mind would sometimes wander when he was supposed to be studying Latin; the classics nonetheless made an impression on him, and he was moved to tears by Virgil's account of the tragedy of Dido and Aeneas in the Aeneid. Later he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and – because his father planned a medical career for him – anatomy. Music did not feature prominently in the young Berlioz's education. His father gave him basic instruction on the flageolet, and he later took flute and guitar lessons with local teachers. He never studied the piano, and throughout his life played haltingly …

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