Charles Gounod

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(b Paris, 17 June 1818; d St Cloud, 18 Oct 1893). French composer. He studied privately with Reicha and at the Paris Conservatoire with Halévy (counterpoint) and Le Sueur (composition), winning the Prix de Rome in 1839. At Rome (1840-42) he was deeply impressed by the 16th-century polyphonic music (particularly Palestrina's) he heard in the Sistine Chapel and wrote some rather austere masses; for a time a church organist in Paris, he considered joining the priesthood. The climax of his liturgical work came in 1855 with the florid Messe solennelle de Ste Cécile, a favourite setting scarcely superseded by his 12 later ones (1870-92). Meanwhile he wrote a Gluckian, then a Meyerbeerian opera, both failures; the succeeding five, all first performed at the Théâtre-Lyrique, are the works by which he is remembered, namely the small-scale Le médecin malgré lui (1858) and Philémon et Baucis (1860), the triumphant Faust (1859), in which sensitive musical characterization and a refreshing naturalness set new standards on the French operatic stage, and the major successes Mireille (1864) and Roméo et Juliette (1867).

In 1870 Gounod took refuge in England from the Franco-Prussian War, staying some four years to exploit the English demand for choral music. The first conductor of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society (1871), he produced dozens of choruses and songs. But he experienced considerable intrigue in his private life, effectively marking the end of his fruitfulness as a composer. His oratorios for Birmingham, La rédemption and Mors et vita, if banal and facilely emotional, were nonetheless successful. Gounod's influence on the next generation of French composers, including Bizet, Fauré and especially Massenet, was enormous. Tchaikovsky and later Poulenc, Auric and Ravel admired his clean workmanship, delicate sentiment, gift for orchestral colour and, in his best songs, unpretentious lyrical charm.

works:
Dramatic music

• Le médecin malgré lui (1858)
• Faust (1859)
• Philémon et Baucis (1860)
• Mireille (1864)
• Roméo et Juliette (1867)
• Polyeucte (1878)
• 6 other operas
• incidental music to Jeanne d′Arc (1873) and 4 other plays

Vocal music

• Messe solennelle de Ste Cécile (1855)
• 16 other masses
• 4 oratorios, incl. La rédemption (1882), Mors et vita (?1885)
• sacred pieces
• partsongs, solo songs, duets

Instrumental music

• 2 syms.
• Petite symphonie, wind (1885)
• Str Qt chamber and orch pieces
• pf, org music

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The French composer Charles François Gounod (1818-1893) is best known for his operas. His music tends to be more lyric than dramatic, his melodic writing at its best revealing a considerable warmth of feeling.

Charles Gounod was born on June 17, 1818, in Paris. His father was a prominent painter; his mother was a pianist, and Charles received his first musical education from her. In 1836 he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he studied counterpoint with Jacques Fromentin Halévy and composition with Jean François Lesueur.

In 1837 Gounod won second place in the coveted Prix de Rome award and in 1839 the Grand Prix. This enabled him to study in Italy, where he was exposed to the choral music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. This remained an important influence throughout his life, perhaps even to the detriment of his own choral writing. Returning from Rome through Austria, he also had the chance to hear some of the more romantic compositions of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn.

For a time Gounod studied theology and even considered becoming a priest. His theological interests ultimately earned him the title "Abbé." Eventually he returned to music, and he attempted to gain success through the composition of operas, the surest road to fame for any French composer. His first opera, Sapho (1851), achieved only a moderate success. With his fourth opera, Faust (1859), he achieved international renown. Although both the libretto and the music have been criticized for their sentimental oversimplification of Goethe's great drama, Faust maintained its position as the most popular French opera in the repertoire for almost a century. Gounod completed 12 operas, but only one other, Roméo et Juliette (composed 1864, first performed 1867), has remained in the repertoire. Its fame rests on Juliette's waltz song and the numerous love duets.

From 1870 to 1875 Gounod lived in London, where, in addition to presenting concerts and composing a number of religious works, he organized the Gounod Choir, later to become the Royal Choral Society. In his last years he concentrated almost exclusively on composing large choral works, but none of these added to his stature as a composer. He died at Saint-Cloud on Oct. 18, 1893.

Two short compositions by Gounod have attained sufficient popularity to merit mention. One is the orchestral Funeral March for a Marionette (1873), which captures perfectly the peculiar humor suggested in the title. The other is the Ave Maria (1859) based on Johann Sebastian Bach's first prelude from The Well-tempered Clavier. This has been criticized as a sentimentalization of the work of a great master, but it is in actuality an ingenious display of compositional craft in which Gounod kept Bach's prelude unchanged but used it as an accompaniment for his own expressive melody.

Further Reading

Gounod wrote his Autobiographical Reminiscences (trans. 1896; repr. 1970). There are no major biographies of Gounod in English. Norman Demuth, Introduction to the Music of Gounod (1950), is a study of his work. Brief material on Gounod is in Edward J. Dent, Opera (1940; rev. ed. 1949), and Donald Jay Grout, A Short History of Opera (1947; 2d ed. 1965).

Gounod, Charles (1818-52). French composer; his opera Faust (1859) won lasting popularity.

Faust Poster

On this date in 1859, Charles Gounod's opera, Faust, premiered in Paris. Though it got off to a rocky start, after delays and rejections (because it wasn't "showy" enough), the opera became a mainstay of many of the opera theaters over the years. New York's Metropolitan Opera House opened with a production of Faust in 1883. Gounod based his opera on the German alchemist who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for youth, power and knowledge.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, March 19, 2006

Gounod, Charles François (shärl fräNswä' gūnō'), 1818-93, French composer, studied at the Paris Conservatory and received the Grand Prix de Rome in 1839. His fame rests chiefly on his operas Faust (1859) and Romeo and Juliet (1867), marked by their richly lyrical romantic music. One other opera, Mireille (1864), had some success. His oratorios La Rédemption (1882) and Mors et Vita (1885) and his funeral cantata, Gallia (1871) are worthy of note. He spent some years in the study of theology and greatly admired the church music of Palestrina.

Bibliography

See his reminiscences (tr. 1896, repr. 1970); biography by J. Harding (1973).

• Genres: Chamber Music, Choral Music, Keyboard Music, Opera, Symphony, Vocal Music

Biography

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) was one of the most popular French composers of the nineteenth century. He is best known for Faust, which remains at the core of the operatic repertoire, and his version of Roméo et Juliette is also frequently performed. A musical conservative rather than an innovator, Gounod wrote music notable for its lyricism and tunefulness. Although he wrote in many genres, he is remembered especially for his vocal music, much of which was composed for the church. His setting of Ave Maria, which uses Bach's C major Prelude as its accompaniment, is among the most familiar pieces of classical music. ~ Stephen Eddins, Rovi

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