Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.

The Romantics
Simultaneous with Berlioz's discovery of Shakespeare was his immersion in the texts of true Romanticism. By now he had composed several works including Estelle et Némorin and Le passage de la mer Rouge (The Crossing of the Red Sea) – both now lost – the latter of which convinced Lesueur to take Berlioz on as one of his private pupils. These were members of a secret society of Italian patriots based in France with the aim of creating a unified Italy.

Hector Berlioz (pronounced: [ɛktɔʁ bɛʁˈljoːz]; 11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic composer best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). His influence was critical for the further development of Romanticism especially in composers like Richard Wagner Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Franz Liszt Richard Strauss Gustav Mahler and many others.