GOUNOD, CHARLES FRANÇOIS

Prominent figure in romanticist music; b. Paris, June 17, 1818; d. Saint-Cloud, Oct. 18, 1893. The boy was heir to a long artistic tradition; his father was a Prix de Rome painter; his mother, an excellent pianist. Young Gounod took his B. ès Lettres at the Lycée Saint-Louis, then entered the Paris Conservatory, winning the Prix de Rome in 1839. After experience as church organist in Rome and Paris, he studied theology for two years before deciding finally upon a career as composer. As with his life, his creative work moved along two lines—the opera and the Church. Among many operatic failures, his Faust remains a landmark of the lyric stage despite its theatrical absurdities, and Romeo et Juliette was one of the first French coloratura operas. His religious works—notably the four Masses and the oratorios Rédemption and Mors et Vita —have certain fine moments, and betray a marvelous gift for vocal writing as well as unfailing workmanship and earnestness of purpose; but they lack virility and humility and are aesthetically banal. After a period of Victorian popularity they have all but disappeared. His best (because simple and unpretentious) church music may be found in the Anglican anthems and other pieces composed while he was in England during the Franco-Prussian War.

Apart from his fine musicianship, he had a serious musical outlook unusual for the period. His first envoi as a Prix de Rome winner was an unaccompanied Te Deum for ten soloists and two choruses in Palestrina style, at a time when Palestrina was an unknown quantity in France. When he discovered Bach's Well-Tempered Clavichord and brought it back to Paris, he caused consternation at the conservatory. He was also generous and encouraging toward young composers. Church music has since acquired a dignity that cannot be detected in Gounod's Masses; yet these works remain emblematic of the romanticist period.

Bibliography: c. f. gounod, Memories of an Artist, tr. by a. e. crocker (New York 1895); Autobiographical Reminiscences, with Family Letters and Notes on Music, tr. w. h. hutchinson (London 1896). n. demuth, Introduction to the Music of Gounod (London 1950). h. busser, Charles Gounod (Lyons 1961). e. haraszti, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 5:593–604. g. chouquet and a. jullien, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom, 9 v. (5th ed. London 1954) 3:729–735. n. slonimsky, ed., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (5th ed. New York 1958) 594–596. m. cooper, "Charles Gounod and His Influence on French Music," Music and Letters 21 (1940) 50–59; French Music (London 1951; pa. New York 1955). a. g. gann, "Théophile Gautier, Charles Gounod, and the Massacre of La Nonne sanglante, " Journal of Musicological Research, 13 (1993) 49–66. c. f. gounod, "Composers as Conductors," introduced by m. kelkel, tr. w. ashbrook, Opera Quarterly, 12/1 (1996) 5–17. w. e. grim, "Faust, " in International Dictionary of Opera ed. c. s. larue, 2v. (Detroit 1993) 421–423. j.-m. guieu, "Mirèio and Mireille: Mistral's Poem and Gounod's Opera," Opera Quarterly, 10/1 (1993) 33–47. s. huebner, The Operas of Charles Gounod (Oxford 1990). l. snyder, "Mireille, " in International Dictionary of Opera ed. c. s. larue, 2 v. (Detroit 1993) 880–882. l. a. wright, "Gounod and Bizet: A Study in Musical Paternity," Journal of Musicological Research, 13 (1993) 31–48.

[n. demuth]