356 



GOUNOD, CHARLES FRANCOIS. 



in a seminary for priests, and his first post on 

 his return to Paris was that of precentor of the 

 Missions Etrangeres, whose seminary he also en- 

 tered as an eterne. Now he not only gave him- 

 self wholly to the. study of theology and the 

 composition of church music, but also put on 

 conventual robes. This fact is to be noted for 

 the bearing which it has on his later life story. 

 Before leaving Rome, in 1841, he conducted a 

 performance of a requiem mass of his own com- 

 position, and this work he was privileged to re- 

 peat a few months afterward in Vienna. In the 

 Austrian capital the young musician was be- 

 friended by Otto Nicolai, conductor of -the court 

 opera ; in" Berlin he visited at the home of 

 Fanny Hensel, whose acquaintance he had made 

 in Rome. The center of musical influence in 

 Germany at that time was Leipsic, and thither 

 voung Gounod went next with a letter from 

 Madame Hensel to her brother Felix Mendels- 

 sohn-Bartholdy. He was cordially received by 

 the composer, who devoted himself almost ex- 

 clusively to him for four days, gave a special 

 performance of the " Scotch Symphony ' for 

 his benefit, played music by Bach for him on 

 the organ in St. Thomas's Church, which had 

 once answered to the touch of the great mas- 

 ter himself, and looked over the manuscripts 

 that he had brought with him from Rome. 

 Among them was the mass that had been 

 sung at Rome and Vienna. Referring to one 

 of its numbers written for five voices a capella, 

 Mendelssohn said, " Mon ami, that might be 

 signed by Cherubini." 



Except in Vienna, where Nicolai introduced 

 him into operatic and instrumental circles, the 

 influences that had been brought to bear upon 

 the peculiarly impressionable nature of the 

 young musician were churchly, and, as has al- 

 ready been intimated, he was apparently only 

 following the path marked out for him, when he 

 sank himself in the work and study of the Mis- 

 sions Etrangeres on returning to his native city. 

 He surely contemplated taking holy orders, and 

 probably entered upon some kind of novitiate, 

 for in 1846 there appeared in print a set of 

 church offices composed by " L'Abbe Charles Gou- 

 nod." He had been wholly forgotten in Paris, 

 when attention was drawn to his music by an 

 article published in " The Athenaeum " of Lon- 

 don. This was in 1851. The article was trans- 

 lated into French. It is likely that Louis Viar- 

 dot, the husband of Viardot-Garcia, was respon- 

 sible for the article either as author or insti- 

 gator. At any rate, the Viardots enlisted them- 

 selves in the service of Gounod, and succeeded 

 in securing for him a commission for an opera 

 from the Academy. This opera was " Sapho," 

 which was produced in 1851. For thirty years 

 thereafter the man who had. seemed to have 

 planted at least one foot firmly in the Church 

 gave himself almost wholly to the theater. In 

 eight years he reached the high noon of his suc- 

 cess in the opera of " Faust," his masterpiece, 

 and the work that will provide the stoutest 

 props for his posthumous fame. When the sun 

 of his creative genius began to set he turned 

 again to the mystical enthusiasms of his youth, 

 pondered religious questions, and took up church 

 compositions. His operas are these: ' Sapho," 

 performed in 1851 ; " La Nonne Sanglante," 



1854 ; " Le Medecin malgre lui,'' 1858 ; " Faust," 

 1859; "Philemon et Baucis," 1860; "La Reine 

 de Saba," 1862; "Mireille," 1864; "La Co- 

 lombe," 1866 ; " Romeo et Juliette," 1867; "Cinq 

 Mars," 1877 ; " Polyeucte," 1878 ; " Le Tribut de 

 Zamora." 1881. At various times during the 

 last fifteen years of his life he worked upon op- 

 eratic scores that he never finished, the sub- 

 jects of which were Charlotte Corday, Abelard 

 and Heloise, and Moliere's " Georges Dandin." 

 In the forms not connected with the theater or 

 church Gounod composed little. His masses, 

 written first and last, number a dozen ; his songs 

 might reach a hundred, but scarcely more than 

 a dozen of them have attained lasting popu- 

 larity. In the instrumental field he made few 

 ventures, and of them but one was successful, a 

 humorous trifle called " The Funeral March of a 

 Marionette." He wrote a short oratorio called 

 " Tobie," some hymns and motets, a " Stabat 

 Mater " and a " Te Deum," but these have sel- 

 dom been thought of for years. The most am- 

 bitious of his efforts after he abandoned the 

 theater was the composition of two oratorios for 

 the Birmingham festivals " The Redemption," 

 in 1882, and " Mors et Vita," in 1885. 



It does not seem likely that posterity will ma- 

 terially change the judgment pronounced upon 

 Gounod by his contemporaries. All his works 

 had been tested by time before he died. He 

 was an artist of high ideals and sincere pur- 

 poses. His style was eclectic, and he did much to 

 advance musical composition in France by pre- 

 cept and example. He touched the supreme 

 heights of success but once, but that one instance 

 is one of the most remarkable in the annals of 

 music. No opera ever written has had so uni- 

 versal and so constant a success as " Faust." 

 Its popularity on the day of his death was as 

 great as ever it was. In Paris alone it had had 

 upward of one thousand representations before 

 its composer died. Its music illustrates every 

 charm that its creator possessed his amiability, 

 grace, tenderness, warmth of sentiment, dreami- 

 ness, ecstasy, and fluency of passion. The score 

 of " Le Medecin malgre lui " has been much 

 praised, and many musicians are inclined to 

 consider " Romeo et Juliette " as the peer of 

 " Faust," but the decision of the public in the 

 case has been correct beyond peradventure 

 " Faust " is heard with ever new and naive de- 

 light, the few of his other works that keep the 

 stage with feelings ranging from respect up to 

 gentle pleasure. Gounod's models in dramatic 

 composition were Mozart, Von Weber, and Wag- 

 ner. For the early works of the last he had full 

 appreciation and sincere admiration. He yielded 

 to Wagner's influence in introducing into his 

 scores a flexibility of form that made dramatic 

 expression freer than it had been in French opera 

 up to his time, and he followed him in a meas- 

 ure in some of his external devices ; but his na- 

 ture would not permit him to accept the logical 

 outcome of Wagnerian principles in the manner 

 of their exponent. With all the liberality of 

 thought and affection that led him to introduce 

 innovations in constructive form which are en- 

 titled to much of the credit for his success, he 

 still believed that Mozart's masterpiece, concern- 

 ing which he wrote a monograph full of lovely 

 enthusiasm, fulfilled all the conditions of lyro- 



