Page "Hector Berlioz" Paragraph 11

He began and finished composition of the Symphonie fantastique in 1830, a work which would bring Berlioz much fame and notoriety.

He entered into a relationship with – and subsequently became engaged to – Camille Moke, despite the symphony being inspired by Berlioz's obsession with Harriet Smithson.

As his fourth cantata for submittal to the Prix de Rome neared completion, the July Revolution broke out.

" I was finishing my cantata when the revolution broke out ", he recorded in his Mémoires, " I dashed off the final pages of my orchestral score to the sound of stray bullets coming over the roofs and pattering on the wall outside my window.

On the 29th I had finished, and was free to go out and roam about Paris ' till morning, pistol in hand ".

Shortly later, he finally won the prize with the cantata Sardanapale.

He also arranged the French national anthem La Marseillaise and composed an overture to Shakespeare's The Tempest, which was the first of his pieces to play at the Paris Opéra, but an hour before the performance began, quite ironically, a sudden storm created the worst rain in Paris for 50 years, meaning the performance was almost deserted.

Berlioz met Franz Liszt who was also attending the concert.

This proved to be the beginning of a long friendship.

Liszt would later transcribe the entire Symphonie fantastique for piano to enable more people to hear it.