Perhaps the highest ranking of French composers. He was the son of a doctor and began medical studies hinself but against his father's wishes he became a student at the Paris Conservatoire and was drawn to the Romantic movement which, in Paris, was represented by the authors Dumas and Hugo, and by the painter Delacroix. Most of his works require large forces and are no less grand in conception or emotional intensity. He developed 'programme music', that is compositions based around a story, as in Harold in Italy and his Symphonie Fantastique. He was a master of orchestration and wrote an important book on the subject. He died a broken man after the failure of his opera The Trojans, and the deaths of his second wife and son.
