Charles François Gounod was born in Paris on June 17, 1818. He received
his academic education at the Lycée St. Louis, and his musical training
at the Paris Conservatory with Halévy and Lesueur among others. In 1839
he won the Prix de Rome. During his stay in Italy he became interested
in church music and completed several choral works. He turned to opera
after returning to Paris, his first work for the lyric stage being
_Sapho_, successfully produced at the Paris Opéra in 1851. From then on,
for many years, he concentrated mainly on opera, winning world renown in
1859 with _Faust_. In 1870 he visited London where he conducted
orchestral and choral concerts. During the last years of his life he
devoted himself for the most part to the writing of religious music.
Gounod died in Paris on October 18, 1893. He is most famous for his
operas, and most specifically for _Faust_, though _Mireille_ (1864) and
_Roméo et Juliette_ (1867) have also been highly acclaimed and
frequently given. Gounod was a composer who conveyed to his music
sensitive human values. He was a melodist of the first order, his
lyricism enhanced in its expressiveness through his subtle feeling for
orchestral and harmonic colors.
The _Ave Maria_, while originally a song, is famous in transcriptions
for solo instruments and also for orchestra. The interesting feature of
this work is the fact that Gounod wrote this spiritual, deeply moving
melody to the famous prayer in Latin, against an accompaniment
comprising the music (without any change whatsoever) of Bach’s Prelude
in C major from the _Well-Tempered Clavier_. The marriage of melody and
accompaniment is so ideal it is difficult to realize that each is the
work of a different composer from a different generation.
Gounod’s masterwork, the opera _Faust_, is surely one of the most
celebrated works of the French lyric theater. Many of its selections are
deservedly popular. The opera—libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré
based on the poetic drama of Goethe—was first performed in Paris on
March 19, 1859. Strange to report, it was originally a failure with both
audience and critics. Not until it was revived in Paris in 1869 did the
opera finally win favor; from this point it went on to conquer the
world. One of the reasons for this permanent, if somewhat belated,
success, is the sound theatrical values of the libretto. The opera is
consistently excellent theater, rich with emotion, pathos, drama, pomp
and ceremony. The story, of course, is that of the celebrated Faust
legend. Faust makes a pact with the devil, Mephistopheles, to trade his
soul for the return of his youth. As a young man, Faust makes love to
Marguerite. When she becomes a mother she kills her child. Faust comes
to her prison cell to entreat her to escape, but she does not seem to
understand him. After her punishment by death, Faust is led to his own
doom by Mephistopheles.
Perhaps the most famous single excerpt from the opera is the rousing
_Soldier’s Chorus_ (“_Gloire immortelle des nos aïeux_”) from Act 4,
Scene 3. The soldiers, returning from the war, sing out their joy on
coming home victorious. This episode is celebrated in transcriptions
either for orchestra or for brass band. Almost as popular is the
captivating Waltz in Act 2. In the opera it is sung and danced by
villagers during a celebration in the public square (“_Ainsi que la
brise légère_”); this excerpt is also familiar in transcription.
The Walpurgis Night Ballet Music from _Faust_, though generally omitted
from the performances of the opera itself, has become a concert
favorite. This music is given in Paris during the first scene of the
last act. The classic queens—Helen, Phryne and Cleopatra—and their
attendants are called upon to dance to distorted versions of several of
the opera’s beloved melodies. There are here seven dances of which six
appear in the score only with tempo markings: _Waltz_, _Adagio_,
_Allegretto_, _Moderato maestoso_, _Moderato con moto_, _Allegretto_,
and _Allegro vivo_.
When an orchestral potpourri from the opera is given by semi-classical
orchestra, it includes some other beloved excerpts: Marguerite’s “Jewel
Song” (“_Je ris de me voir_”), in which she speaks her joy in finding
the casket of jewels secretly placed for her in her garden by Faust; the
rousing _Kermesse_ or Fair Music that opens the second act, “_Vin ou
bière_”; Mephistopheles’ cynical comment on man’s greed for gold, “_Le
Veau d’or_”; Faust’s hymn of love for Marguerite, “_O belle enfant! je
t’aime_”; the “Chorus of Swords” (“_De l’enfer qui vient émousser_”), a
vibrant exhortation by the young men of the village who, sensing they
are in the presence of the devil, raise their swords in the form of a
cross to confound him.
The _Funeral March of a Marionette_ (_Marche funèbre d’une marionnette_)
is a delightful piece originally written for the piano in 1873, and
after that transcribed by the composer for orchestra. Gounod had hopes
to make it the first movement of a piano suite. When he failed to
complete that suite, he issued the march as a separate piece of music in
the now-famous orchestral version. The opening march music tells of the
procession of pallbearers to a cemetery as they carry a dead marionette.
A brighter spirit is induced as the pallbearers stop off at an inn. Then
the procession continues. The funereal atmosphere of the closing
measures speaks of the ephemeral nature of all life, even the life of a
marionette.
The opera _Mireille_—libretto by Barbier and Carré based on Mistral’s
poem, _Mirèio_—is not often performed. But this is not true of its
overture. The opera was first performed in Paris on March 19, 1864. The
story revolves around the tragic love affair of the Provençal girl,
Mireille, and the basket-weaver, Vincent. The overture opens with a slow
introduction in which a stately idea is offered by the woodwind. In the
main body, the principal melody is heard in the strings while the
subsidiary theme is first presented by the violins. After both ideas are
amplified, a crescendo section leads to the triumphant reappearance of
the first theme in the full orchestra. The overture ends with a short
but spirited coda.
Out of the opera _Roméo et Juliet_ comes a most charming waltz. The
opera was introduced in Paris on April 27, 1867. The libretto, once
again by Barbier and Carré, was based on the Shakespeare tragedy. The
waltz opens the first act, a ballroom scene in the Capulet palace
honoring Juliet. Against the lilting strains of this music, the guests
perform an eye-filling dance.