Charles Gounod
French Composer
1818-1893
Biography
Born in Paris, June 17, 1818
 Father – painter & engraver,
worked for royalty
 Mother – gifted pianist,
supported 2 sons after father’s death
 Showed enormous musical talent, along
with skills in drawing and painting

Biography Continued
Attended Parisian Schools, where he took
private lessons in harmony and
counterpoint.
 Enrolled himself in the Paris Conservatoire
after his mother’s death.
 Earned the Grand Prix in 1839 with the
cantata Fernand.

Biography Continued
Journeyed to Germany where he visited
Felix Mendelssohn, whose style would
emerge later in Gounod’s career (ie: in the
instrumental offertory in the Mass of St.
Cecilia.)
 Enrolled in seminary in 1847, but
abandoned his theological studied quickly,
in 1848.

Composition Background
First opera: Sappho – 1851.
 Most successful opera: Faust – 1859.
 Romeo and Juliet – 1867.
 Most Famous Sacred Piece: Jesus of
Nazareth – 1856.
 Wrote 21 masses, 3 oratories, and many
cantatas, motets and other religious works.

Mass of St. Cecilia
Communion Service Mass
 Written in 1855
 His most famous essay in the genre.
 Certain heavy-handedness in parts of the
orchestra shows Gounod’s eternally
youthful religious enthusiasm.
 Mass ends in the form of the 3-fold prayer
to the Emperor Napoleon, invoking
church, army, and nation.

Work Cited
"Charles Gounod." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 7
Apr 2006, 19 Apr 2006
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Gounod&oldid=47
329335>.
Huebner, Steven ‘Gounod, Charles', Grove Music Online
ed. L. Macy (Accessed: 4/12/2006),
<http://www.grovemusic.com>
Otten, Joseph. Charles-François Gounod. The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Vol. VI.October 2005
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06683b.htm>