Charles Gounod
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.