Music was a part of the Berlioz household, and the young Hector not only became proficient upon the guitar and the flageolet—a primitive flute—but composed chamber works (now lost) and romances with notable ambition. Newly arrived in Paris to study medicine, young Berlioz brought some of these compositions along and, with others newly composed, soon saw several of them published. Among them, Amitié, reprends ton empire ("Friendship, resume your sway"), to a lyric from the Galatée of the sentimental French poet Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755 - 1794), looms as a typical and well-crafted drawing room romance. The strophes are given to a single female voice, joined at the refrain—or "invocation"—by a second female voice and baritone calling upon friendship to prevail over the blind god of lovers, to an effect of charming solemnity. It was published in Paris in 1823. Another version exists, revealingly titled Invocation à l'amitié.

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