Musical Moments #40
“Music is a method of employing the mind without the labor of thinking at all.”
Samuel Johnson
“Sanctus” from Messe Solennelle St. Cecilia.
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Charles Gounod, born in Paris to a mother who was a pianist and a father who was the official painter to the royal family, experienced a childhood that allowed his family to live part of his youth in the Palace of Versailles. As a child, he studied piano with his mother and a friend of Beethoven’s, Anton Reicha, who provided him with a wonderful musical foundation.
Winning France’s most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome, launched Gounod’s career and subsidized a residency in Rome. It was there that he met Fanny Mendelssohn, was introduced to Goethe’s Faust, and studied the music of Palestrina and the art of Michelangelo. He then spent time in Vienna, Prussia, and Leipzig where he met Felix Mendelssohn who introduced him to the music of J.S. Bach. Gounod had the great fortune of being able to soak up great music in the great musical centers of Europe.
After moving back to Paris and marrying, Gounod received commissions to write operas. During his life he wrote twelve operas, receiving varying levels of success with only two of his works being currently performed: Faust and Romeo and Juliette. After moving his family to the English countryside to avoid the Franco-Prussian War, he made a living writing church music, conducting The Royal Albert Hall Choral Society with Queen Victoria’s approval, and conducting concerts for the Philharmonic Society and Crystal Palace.
When Gounod’s family moved back to Paris, he remained behind due to the influence of the prominent singer, Georgina Weldon, who championed his music. Speculations grew concerning the nature of their relationship when he declined the French President’s invitation to be director of the Paris Conservatory so he could remain in England. He finally left England for Paris three years later under controversial circumstances, and when he arrived back home, he discovered the musical scene had changed and rising composers such as Bizet, Chabrier, Massenet, and Fauré of the Société Nationale de Musique were becoming established. No longer was he the dominant figure in French music, a position he had held since the death of Berlioz. It seemed the only young French composer’s music he really liked was that of Saint-Saëns whom he referred to as “the French Beethoven.”
Gounod remained active conducting, composing smaller works, and revising older ones in the later part of his life. Little of his music has endured in the classical canon, but his influence on French composers was profound. He is forever a part of the fabric of French music, having especially influencing Debussy, Fauré and Ravel. Interestingly, the pieces most would recognize by Gounod are the “Funeral March of the Marionettes” (The Alfred Hitchcock Theme) and his elaboration on a Bach work, “Ave Maria.”
This “Sanctus” movement is from his Messe Solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile, honoring St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians. The recording is from April 2018 and features tenor Robert Breault with the Bach Choir and Orchestra.
John V. Sinclair
“Gounod, for all his weaknesses, is essential … the art of Gounod represents a moment in French sensibility. Whether one wants to or not, that kind of thing is not forgotten.”
Claude Debussy