Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and an artist father. His mother was his first piano teacher. Under her tutelage, Gounod first showed his musical talents. He entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied under Fromental Halévy and Pierre Zimmermann (he later married Zimmermann's daughter). In 1839, he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. He was following his father; François-Louis Gounod (d. 1823) had won the second Prix de Rome in painting in 1783.

In Italy he studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century; these he never ceased to cherish. Around 1846-47 he began studying for the priesthood, but he changed his mind and went back to composition.

In 1854, Gounod completed a Messe Solennelle, also known as the Saint Cecilia Mass. This work was first performed, in its entirety, for the church of Saint Eustache in Paris on Saint Cecilia's Day, November 22, 1855; from this rendition dates Gounod's fame as a noteworthy composer.

During 1855 Gounod wrote two symphonies. His Symphony No. 1 in D major was the inspiration for the Symphony in C, composed later that year by Georges Bizet, who was then Gounod's 17-year-old student. In the CD era a few recordings of these pieces have emerged: by Michel Plasson conducting the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and by Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851, at the urging of his friend Pauline Viardot; it was a commercial failure. He had no great theatrical success until Faust (1859), based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play, The First Part of the Tragedy. This remains the composition for which he is best known, and although it took a while to achieve renown, it became one of the most frequently staged operas of all time. The romantic and melodious Roméo et Juliette (based on the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet), premiered in 1867, is revived occasionally then but has never come close to matching Fausts popularity. Mireille, first performed in 1864, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public. The other Gounod operas have fallen into oblivion.

From 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England, becoming the first conductor of what is now the Royal Choral Society. Much of his music from this time is vocal. He became entangled with the amateur English singer Georgina Weldon, a relationship (platonic, it seems) which ended in great acrimony and embittered litigation. Gounod had lodged with Weldon and her husband in London's Tavistock House.

Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, introduced the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach to Gounod, who came to revere Bach. For him, The Well-Tempered Clavier was "the law to pianoforte study...the unquestioned textbook of musical composition". It inspired Gounod to devise an improvisation of a melody over the C major Prelude (BWV 846) from the collection's first book. To this melody, in 1859, Gounod fitted the words of the Ave Maria, resulting in a setting that became world-famous. Joan Benson: Bach and the Clavier.

Later in his life, Gounod returned to his early religious impulses, writing much sacred music. His Pontifical Anthem (Marche Pontificale, 1869) eventually (1949) became the official national anthem of Vatican City. He expressed a desire to compose his Messe à la mémoire de Jeanne d'Arc while kneeling on the stone on which Joan of Arc knelt at the coronation of Charles VII of France. A devout Catholic, he had on his piano a music-rack in which was carved an image of the face of Jesus.

He was made a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in July 1888. In 1893, shortly after he had put the finishing touches to a requiem written for his grandson, he died of a stroke in Saint-Cloud, France.

One of Gounod's short pieces for piano, "Funeral March of a Marionette", received a new and unexpected lease of life from 1955 when it was first used as the theme for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His piano-accompanied songs were numerous and much praised by Ravel, but are seldom heard in recitals today.

Operas

• Sapho (1851, revised 1884)
• La nonne sanglante (1854)
• Le médecin malgré lui (1858)
• Faust (1859, revised 1869)
• Philémon et Baucis (1860, revised 1876)
• La colombe (1860)
• La reine de Saba (1862)
• Mireille (1864)
• Roméo et Juliette (1867, revised 1888)
• Cinq-Mars (1877)
• Polyeucte (1878)
• Le tribut de Zamora (1881)
• Maître Pierre (incomplete, 1877—84)

Oratorios

• Tobie (1854)
• Gallia (1871)
• Jésus sur le lac de Tibériade (1873)
• La rédemption (1882) (commissioned for, and premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival)
• Christus factus est (1842)
• Mors et vita (1884)
• Requiem (1891)

Symphonies

• Symphony No. 1 in D major (1855) (probably begun around 1843)
• Symphony No. 2 in E flat major (1855)

Chamber music

• String Quartet in A minor (published as No.3)
• String Quartet in C minor "Petit quatuor"
• String Quartet No.2 in A Major
• String Quartet No.3 in F Major
• String Quartet in G minor
• Petite symphonie pour neuf instruments à vent (1885) 'Little Symphony for Winds'

Other instrumental

• Marche pontificale composed for Pope Pius IX's silver jubilee of priestly ordination in 1869. Since 24 December 1949 it has been the official Papal Anthem.
• Funeral March of a Marionette for piano solo (1872), well-known for being the theme music to the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Works for organ

• Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, [vol. # 7].

Articles

Sheet music

• Score of "Chants sacrés: 60 motets avec accompt. d’orgue ou piano pour messes, saluts, mariages, offices divers" From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• Free sheet music on Cantorion.org
• Free scores at the Mutopia Project

Recordings

• Gounod cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Roméo et Juliette Complete MP3 Creative Commons Recording
• Performance of Ave Maria
• Free Mp3 file of the Fantasie elegante on Gounod's "Faust" by Ignace Leybach, played by John Kersey
• Sound-bites from String Quartet in A minor & short bio

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