Background
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.
(This advanced piano piece by the 19th-century French comp...)
This advanced piano piece by the 19th-century French composer is one of his most popular concert works. The program music describes a funeral procession, relieved by a lively middle section where the mourners stop for refreshment. The main theme was used as the signature music for the Alfred Hitchcock mystery television series.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1470619334/?tag=2022091-20
(Expertly arranged Vocal score by Charles François Gounod ...)
Expertly arranged Vocal score by Charles François Gounod from the Kalmus Edition series. This Opera Score is from the Romantic era.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0769246362/?tag=2022091-20
(Simplified Masterwork Solo.)
Simplified Masterwork Solo.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739009869/?tag=2022091-20
(A vocal solo, composed by Charles François Gounod.)
A vocal solo, composed by Charles François Gounod.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0769280056/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VP6ECI/?tag=2022091-20
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. He studied 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.
After his temporary passion to theology 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 October 18, 1893.
(This advanced piano piece by the 19th-century French comp...)
(Expertly arranged Vocal score by Charles François Gounod ...)
(A vocal solo, composed by Charles François Gounod.)
(Simplified Masterwork Solo.)
For a time Gounod studied theology and even considered becoming a priest. His theological interests ultimately earned him the title "Abbé. "
Quotations:
"Musical ideas sprang to my mind like a flight of butterflies, and all I had to do was to stretch out my hand to catch them"
"Bach is a colossus of Rhodes, beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass. Mozart is the most beautiful, Rossini the most brilliant, but Bach is the most comprehensive: he has said all there is to say. "
"If all the music written since Bach's time should be lost, it could be reconstructed on the foundation which Bach laid. "
"Who has reached the extreme limits of scale with the same infallible precision, equally guarded against the false refinement of artificial elegance and the roughness of spurious force? Who has better known how to breathe anguish and dread into the purest and most exquisite forms?"
"This severe, ascetic music, calm and horizontal as the line of the ocean, monotonous by virtue of its serenity, anti-sensuous, and yet so intense in its contemplativeness that it verges sometimes on ecstasy. "
"Before Mozart, all ambition turns to despair. "
"Mozart, prodigal heaven gave thee everything, grace and strength, abundance and moderation, perfect equilibrium. "
"My opinion changes rapidly - one minute I can think it is very good and the next time I look at it, I see all the flaws and weaknesses therein. "
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.
He was married Anne, Pierre Zimmerman's daughter.
1758 - 1823
1780 - 16 January 1858
1807 - 1850
May 31, 1839 - October 19, 1907
1863 - 1945
June 8, 1856 - October 2, 1935
