Charles Gounod

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Charles Gounod.

Charles-François Gounod (IPA: [ɡuno]; 17 June[1] 1818 – 18 October[2] 1893) was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and an artist father. His mother was his first piano teacher. Under her tutelage, Gounod first showed his musical talents. He entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied under Fromental Halévy and Pierre Zimmermann (he later married Zimmermann's daughter). In 1839, he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. In this, he was following in his father's footsteps; François-Louis Gounod (d. 1823) had won the second Prix de Rome in painting in 1783.[3]

Caricature from Punch, 1882.
Charles Gounod in 1859, the year of the premiere of Faust

He subsequently went to Italy where he studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century. Around 1846-47 he began studying for the priesthood, but he changed his mind and went back to composition[4].

In 1854, Gounod completed a "Messe Solennelle", also known as the "Saint Cecilia Mass". This work (which still crops up quite often in concerts and on disc) was first performed, in its entirety, for the church of Saint Eustache in Paris on St. Cecilia's Day, November 22nd, 1855 - and from its premiere dates Gounod's fame as a noteworthy composer.

During 1855 Gounod wrote two symphonies. His Symphony No. 1 in D major was the inspiration for the Symphony in C, composed later that same year by Georges Bizet, who was then Gounod's 17-year-old student. Despite their charm and brilliance, Gounod's symphonies are largely neglected nowadays. In the CD era, however, a few recordings of these pieces have emerged: by Michel Plasson conducting the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and by Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851, with the help of Pauline Viardot, but had no great theatrical success until Faust (1859), based on the play by Goethe. This remains his best-known work, and although it took a while to achieve great renown, it eventually became one of the most frequently staged operas of all time. The romantic and highly melodious Roméo et Juliette (based on the Shakespeare play), premiered in 1867, is also performed and recorded now and then, even though it has never come close to matching Faust's popularity. Mireille of 1864, a charming and graceful composition, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public.

From 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England, becoming the first conductor of what is now the Royal Choral Society. Much of Gounod's music from this time is vocal in nature. He became entangled with the amateur English singer Georgina Weldon[5], a relationship (platonic, it seems) which ended in great acrimony.[6]

Fanny Mendelssohn introduced the keyboard music of J. S. Bach to Gounod, who came to revere Bach hugely. For him, The Well-Tempered Clavier was "the law to pianoforte study ... the unquestioned textbook of musical composition".

Later in his life, Gounod returned to his early religious impulses, writing much religious music. His earlier work included an improvisation of a melody over the C major Prelude (BWV 846) from The Well-Tempered Clavier, to which in 1859 Gounod set the words of Ave Maria, resulting in his composition Ave Maria, a setting that became world-famous.[7]. He also wrote a Pontifical Anthem, now the official national anthem of the Vatican City. He also wanted to compose his Messe à la mémoire de Jeanne d'Arc while kneeling on the stone on which Joan of Arc knelt at the coronation of Charles VII of France.[3] A devout Catholic, Gounod had on his piano a music-rack in which was carved an image of the face of Jesus.

He was made a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in July 1888.[3] In 1893, apparently shortly after he had put the finishing touches to a requiem written for his grandson, he died in Saint-Cloud, France.

One of his short pieces, Funeral March of a Marionette, became well known as the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

[edit] Compositions

[edit] Operas

[edit] Oratorios

  • Tobie (1854)
  • Gallia (1871)
  • Jésus sur le lac de Tibériade (1873)
  • La rédemption (1882) (commissioned for, and premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival)
  • Christus factus est (1842)
  • Mors et Vita (1884)
  • Requiem (1891)
Charles Gounod's burial site (Auteuil, Paris, France)

[edit] Symphonies

  • Symphony No. 1 in D major (1855) (probably begun around 1843)[8]
  • Symphony No. 2 in E flat major (1855)

[edit] Chamber music

  • String Quartet in A minor (published as No.3)
  • String Quartet in C minor "Petit quatuor"
  • String Quartet No.2 in A Major
  • String Quartet No.3 in F Major
  • String Quartet in G minor
  • Petite Symphonie pour neuf instruments à vent (1885) 'Little Symphony for Winds'

[edit] Instrumental

[edit] Sources

  • Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, [vol. # 7].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Baker's 7th ed.; also Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, online
  2. ^ ibid, James Harding's Gounod (Stein & Day, 1973) gives 17 October as does [1]
  3. ^ a b c Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicioans, 5th ed. 1954
  4. ^ Cooper M. French Music from the death of Berlioz to the death of Fauré. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1951.
  5. ^ Weldon G. My Orphanage and Gounod in England. London, 1882.
  6. ^ Huebner S. The Operas of Charles Gounod. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990.
  7. ^ Joan Benson: Bach and the Clavier
  8. ^ Steinberg, Michael (2008). "Program Notes for a Performance of Bizet's Symphony". San Francisco Symphony. http://www.sfsymphony.org/music/ProgramNotes.aspx?id=30134. Retrieved 2008-04-12. 
  9. ^ Richard K. Fitzgerald (2006-07-25). "Gounod’s "Roméo et Juliette" at Wolf Trap". http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2006/07/gounods-romo-et-juliette-at-wolf-trap.html. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Articles

[edit] Sheet music

[edit] Recordings

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