1803  11 December  Birth of Louis Hector Berlioz at La Cote St. Andre

1804   Napoleon crowned emperor

1807   Birth of Louise Berlioz  (sister)

1809   Death of Haydn

1813   Wagner born

1814    8 May  Adele Berlioz born  (sister)

1815    Death of Louise Berlioz aged 8

1816    Berlioz learns the flageolet and later the flute. Meets Estelle Dubeuf and falls in love for the first time.

1817    Takes lessons from local music master, First attempts at composition

1818    Composes two quintets for flute and strings

1819    Begins guitar lessons.  Offers songs to publishers in Paris, one song accepted.

1820    Birth of Prosper Berlioz  (brother)

1821    October Leaves for Paris, enrols in the school of Medicine.  First visits to the Opera  -  Salieri and Gluck

1822    Reluctant medical scholar. Frequents library at the Conservatoire de Musique. Publishes several songs. Meets Jean-Francoise Lesueur. Begins elementary harmony lessons.

1823    Becomes a pupil of Leseuer. Father reluctantly agrees to him studying music. Compositions include an oratorio and an opera (lost)

1824   Messe Solemnelle commissioned. Hears Der Freischutz. Mass completed

1825   Parental conflicts.  Mass performed successfully.  Composes Scene Heroique

1826   Starts work on Les Francs-Juges. Enrols at the Conservatoire in the classes of Leseuer and Reicha.  Becomes a member of the chorus at the Theatre des Nouveautes

1827   Composes Waverley Overture. Passes prelim exam for the Prix de Rome. Sets test cantata La Morte d'Orphee. Discovers Shakespeare, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet with Harriet Smithson as Ophelia and Juliet. Falls instantly in love with Harriet.   Beethoven dies.

1828   Gives first orchestral concert.  Enters Prix de Rome again with Herminie. Wins second prize.  Reads Goethe's faust and composes Huit scenes de Faust.  Meets Ferdinand Hiller.

1829    Huit scenes de Faust published as Opus 1, Le Ballet des Ombres as Opus 2.  Third failure at the Prix de Rome with cantata Cleopatre.  Gives second orchestral concert.  Composes Neuf melodies.

1830    Composes Symphonie Fantastique.  Meets Camille Moke, becomes her lover.  Fourth attempt at the Prix de Rome with cantata Sardanapale wins first prize.  Composes the Tempest Overture.  Meets Liszt.  Third concert includes first performance of La Symphonie fantastique. 

1831    Meets Mendelssohn at the Villa Medici.  Receives news of Camille's engagement to Pleyel. Leaves for France bent on vengeance but stops. Begins two overtures, Le Roi Lear and Rob Roy.  Returns to Rome. Composes Le Retour a la vie(Lelio) sequel to La Symphonie Fantastique. Visits Naples, Tivoli, Pompeii and Subiaco.

1832    Composes La Captive. Returns to France spending 5 months at La cote. Concert in Paris of Symphonie Fantastique and Le retour a la vie.  He meets Harriet (who was at the performance) a few days later.

1833    Stormy courtship and marriage to Harriet on 3 October. Five public concerts. Has work Le dernier jour du monde rejected by the Opera. Composes Le Jeune patre breton and becomes music critic for Le Renovateur.

1834    Viola and orchestra work commissioned by Paganini ( Harold en Italie). Not to Paganini's liking. Berlioz and Harriet live in Montmartre. Their son Louis is born 14 August. Benvenuto Cellini turned down by Opera Comique. Composes Sara la baigneuse. Four concerts with Harold en Italie and Sara.  First article in Journal des debats.

1835    Becomes music critic of the Journal des debates.  Two concerts with Liszt. Begins conducting. Cantata Le cinq mai written.  Libretto of Benvenuto Cellini accepted bythe Opera.

1836    Composes Benvenuto Cellini.  Two concerts.  Harriet's last stage appearance.

1837     Receives commission for the Requiem.  Performance takes place in december conducted by Habeneck.

1838     Death of Berlioz's mother.  Performance of Benvenuto Cellini 10 September is a failure.  Paganini hears Harold en Italie for the first time, makes Berlioz a gift of 20,000 francs.

1839    Begins to work on Romeo et Juliette( dedicated to Paganini )  Three performances.  December, meets Wagner.  Marriage deteriorating.

1840    Symphonie funebre et triomphale is commissioned. Performed in open air. Two more indoor performances follow.  Festival de M. Berlioz at the Opera.

1841    Finishes Les Nuits d'Ete,  begins affair with Marie Reccio.

1842    Four Paris concerts. First foreign concert tour to Brussels. Marie accompanies him.  Second tour to Brussels, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

1843    Continues touring, meets Wagner and Robert Schumann. First triumph in Germany.  Returns to Paris and composes the overture Carnival Romain.  Finishes Grand Traite d'Instrumentation et d'Orchestration Modernes.

1844   Three concerts given. Composes Hymne a la France and Marche Funebre pour la derniere scene D'Hamlet.  Harriet and Hector finally separate.

1845    Six concerts in France.  Attends unveiling of Beethoven's statue in Bonn. Starts working on La Damnation de Faust. Le Chasseur Danois and Zaide are composed.  Three concerts in Vienna, accompanied by Marie.

1846    Concerts in Vienna, Prague, Pest and Breslau.  Rakoczy March a huge success in Pest ( his arrangement ).  Chants des Chemins de Fer, written in three days is performed at Lille for the inauguration of the Chemin de Fer du Nord.  La Damnation de Faust is first performed and deemed a failure.

1847    Concert tour to St. Petersburg and Moscow. Visits La Cote with son Louis. Leaves to conduct Jullien's opera season in London.

1848    Failure of Jullien's opera season. In Paris - revolution. Berlioz stays in London until July. Has two successful concerts of his own works. Begins working on the Memoires.  Death of Berlioz's father. Visits home.  Versailles concert. Harriet suffers a stroke, partially disabled.  Starts work on the Te Deum.  First signs of own long term illness.

1849     Completes Te Deum. Harriet suffers more strokes.  Assembles Tristia.

1850     Leads beginning of the Societe philharmonique de Paris. Conducts their first 7 concerts.  Becomes Head Librarian at the Conservatoire. Nanci, his sister dies of cancer. Two concerts given with the work of "Pierre Ducre" Later adds to it to make it La Fuite en Egypte.  Uses name of Pierre Ducre to confound the critics.

1851     Conducts more concerts for the Societe Philharmonique.  Makes second trip to London, is a member of the jury at the Great Exhibition.  Finalises Tristia.

1852     Third visit to London.  Earns reputation in England as world's greatest conductor after conducting two performances of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.  Benvenuto Cellini is revised in Weimar, Liszt conducts. Berlioz publishes Les Soirees de l'Orchestre.

1853     Fourth visit to London.  Benvenuto Cellini is sabotaged by Italian "claque" and is withdrawn. Concerts in Baden-Baden and  Frankfurt. Liszt and Wagner in Paris. Concert tour to Germany, first performance of La Fuite en Egypte.

1854    Composes L'Arrive a Sais as a sequel to La fuite.  Harriet dies 3rd March aged 53.  Concert tour toHanover, Brunswick and Dresden.  Completes L'Enfance du Christ from La Fuite , L'Arrive a Sais and Le Songe d'Herode. L'Imperiale (cantata) is composed.  Completes the Memoires. Marries Marie Recio. L'Enfance du Christ is huge success.

1855    Concerts in Weimar and Brussels. First performance of the Te Deum is at St. Eustache, Paris.  Fifth visit to London - two concerts of New Philharmonic Society.  Wagner and he meet again.Begins work which will become the Traite d'Instrumentation.  Conducts concerts at the Palais de L'industrie, first performance of L'Imperiale.

1856    Visits to Gotha and Weimar.  Urged to write his opera based on the Aeneid.  Completes the orchestral version of Les Nuits d'Ete and  starts the libretto for Les Troyens.  Elected to the Institute de France after death of Adam. More severely ill, moves to 4 rue de Calais.

1857    Rough draft of Les Troyens is completed by the end of the year.

1858    Full score of Les Troyens completed.   Wagner and he have differences. Adds a postscript to the Memoires.  Serialisation of the Memoires in Le Monde Illustre.  Benazet ( manager of casino in Baden-Baden ) commissions new opera.

1859    Les Grotesques de la Musique published.  Concerts in Paris, Bordeaux and Baden-Baden. Berlioz's version of Gluck's Orphee with Pauline Viardot at the Theatre-lyrique.  Baden-Baden commission abandoned due to severe intestinal illness.

1860    Wagner gives 3 concerts in Paris. The Theatre-lyrique (when built) accepts Les Troyens for performance.  Adele, Berlioz's sister dies.  Visits Baden-Baden again.  New commission confirmed ( Beatrice et Benedict)  and is started.

1861    Tannhauser (Wagner) causes scandal when performed at the Opera.  Les Troyens is accepted for performance at the Opera  Concert at Baden-Baden.  Berlioz's version of Gluck's Alceste at the Opera. 

1862    Beatrice et Benedict is finished.  Marie, Berlioz's 2nd wife dies of a heart attack aged 48. Beatrice et Benedict is performed for the first time at Baden-Baden.  Collection of essays, " A travers chants" is published.

1863    Theatre Lyrique to stage Les Troyens as it is dropped by the Opera.  Conducts concerts in Weimar and Strasbourg and Lowenberg. Berlioz writes his last article for Journal des debats. Last three acts of Les Troyens (Les Troyens a Carthage) at the Theatre Lyrique followed by another 20 performances.

1864   Resigns as music critic of the Journal des debats after 30 years. Produces concert version of the March Troyenne.  Now permanently in pain, and bed ridden much of the day, taking more and more laudanum.  Meets Estelle again and re establishes friendship with her, keeping in touch by letters.

1865    1,200 copies of the Memoirs printed privately to be published posthumously. Visits Estelle and his relatives.

1866    Meets Lizst in Paris for the last time. Also his son Louis visits Paris for the last time. Visits Estelle in Geneva.  Conducts La Damnation de Faust in Vienna.

1867    Louis, his son dies in Havana from yellow fever aged only 32. Berlioz cancels his appearance at the Exposition. Last meeting with Estelle. Concert tour in Russia, gives 4 concerts in St. Petersburg.

1868    In Moscow for 2 concerts and further 2 in St. Petersburg. Returns exhausted to Paris and takes holiday on the Riviera. Falls on rocks at Monaco and in Nice suffers small stroke.  Home to Paris partially paralysed and bed ridden.  Attempts to address choral competition in Grenoble but is unable to speak.

1869    Slips into semi-coma and after several days dies on 8th March at 4, rue de calais.

   I have used several sources for my information, in particular,  "Berlioz Remembered"  by Michael Rose published by Faber 0 571 17863 4