As a young medical student in the Paris of the early 1820s, Berlioz attended the opera assiduously, read and copied the scores of Gluck in the Conservatoire library, and published a number of salon romances, some undoubtedly dating from before his arrival, some written after, though precise dating is impossible. The Canon libre à la quinte (or Free Canon at the Fifth) was published in 1822. And though the poem to which it is set is ascribed to Jean-Marc Bourgery (1797 - 1849), an anatomist and author of medical texts, even that is conjectural. Most of these romances are—if simple—accomplished, charming, and easily forgettable. The Canon libre à la quinte, however, is melodically and languidly beguiling, while its canonic involvement proves sensuously intriguing, forecasting a mood and manner which would flower exquisitely in the great nocturne in Béatrice et Bénédict some 40 years later. The canon is dedicated to Augustin de Pons (1803 - 1848), an aristocrat, fellow melomane, and staunch Gluckist who would advance Berlioz the money to perform his Messe solennelle in 1825.

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