Charles Gounod (1818-1893), was a French composer noted particularly for his Ave Maria, based on Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude in C Major (from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I), and for his operas Faust and Romeo and Juliette.
Except for concertos, he composed music in the major genres, but with varying success in the instrumental realm. Though his reputation began to fade even before he died, he is still generally regarded as a major figure in nineteenth century French music. Stylistically, he was a conservative whose influence nevertheless extended to Georges Bizet, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Jules Massenet. His works are tuneful, his vocal writing imaginative and orchestral scoring masterly. Gounod's compositions, even his two symphonies and lesser known operas, are occasionally explored today, and the aforementioned Faust, Romeo and Juliette and Ave Maria are widely performed and recorded.
Gounod's father was a painter, and his mother was a capable pianist who gave Gounod his early training in music. He was educated at the Lycée Saint-Louis, a higher education establishment located in Paris. After taking his degree in philosophy, he began to study music with the Bohemian composer Anton Reicha. On Reicha's death Gounod entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Fromental Halévy and Jean-François Lesueur. Three years later his Cantata Fernand won him the Prix de Rome for music, an award that entailed a three-year stay in Rome at the Villa Medici.
In Italy Gounod devoted a considerable amount of his attention to the works of Giovanni da Palestrina, an Italian Renaissance composer. From Rome he proceeded to Vienna, where a mass and requiem, composed in Italy, were performed in 1842 and 1843. Returning to Paris, he passed through Prague, Dresden, and Berlin and met Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig.
In Paris, Gounod became organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Missions Étrangères, and for two years he mainly studied theology. In 1846 he entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice but in 1847 decided against taking holy orders. A requiem and a Te Deum that he had started writing the previous year remained unfinished, and he turned to composing for the operatic stage.
Gounod's melodic vein is unmistakably original, though often over sentimental. He knew how to write for the voice and was also a skillful orchestrator; but in his operas his sense of musical characterization, though rarely devoid of charm, is often excessively facile, and the religiosity displayed in his sacred music is too often superficial. His Meditation (Ave Maria) superimposed on Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude in C Major (from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I) illustrates both his inventiveness and ease as a melodist and his naïveté in matters of style. The operas Faust, Mireille, and Le Médecin malgré lui show his melodic talents at their best.
Ave Maria
The melody that Gounod wrote to go with the Prelude from Book One of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier began as an improvisation made one evening after dinner with friends. The arpeggiated chords of the prelude work as the accompaniment to the cantilena melody, not unlike a song by Mendelssohn or a Bellini aria. Gounod's father-in-law wrote it down and not only had a violinist and choir perform it for Gounod, but also sold it to a publisher. The Méditation, as the first published version for violin and piano was named, was an instant success, with publishers rushing out various arrangements for different instruments.
How the Latin text of "Ave Maria" ended up attached to the melody is the real story. The composer, with his penchants for romance and drama, would frequently become infatuated by young, married women. According to the family story, Gounod was at one time enchanted by a young woman by the name of Rosalie. He found a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine, Vers sur un album, which he set to the Méditation's melody, thinking it would be an appropriate gift for Rosalie. Although the text is innocent enough, Rosalie's mother deemed the gift inappropriate. She politely suggested the "Ave Maria" text as an alternative. Taking the hint, Gounod made minor changes to adjust the melody to the text, and a classical music hit was born.
Ave Maria (based on J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I)
Performed by Jackie Evancho (Voice) and Tim Janis (Piano)
