GOUNOD, Charles

b Paris, 18 June 1818

d St Cloud, 18 October 1893, aged seventy-five

His father was a painter. He had early piano lessons from his mother, who was the daughter of a professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory. After a classical education he entered the Conservatory in 1836. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1839, and in Rome and Vienna he made many musical friends. While organist and choirmaster in a church in Paris he became interested in the priesthood and in 1846 he was accepted as an external student at the seminary of St Sulpice. However, this phase passed. He married in 1864. From 1870 to 1875 he was in England, conducting, and forming what has now been named the Royal Choral Society. Most of the rest of his life he spent in writing.

1837 (19)

Scherzo for orchestra

1840 (22)

Marche militaire suisse, for orchestra

1851 (33)

Sapho, opera

1852 4 (34-6)

La nonne sanglante, opera

1852-9 (34-41)

Faust, opera

1855 (37)

Symphony No 1 in D minor

Symphony No 2 in E flat major

Messe Solennelle de St Cecile

1857 (39)

Le medecin malgré lui, opera

1860 (42)

Philémon et Baucis, opera

1862 (44)

La Reine de Saba, opera

1864 (46)

Mireille, opera

1865 (47)

'Chant des compagnons'

1867 (49)

Romeo et Juliette, opera

1871 (53)

Saltarello for orchestra

1873 (55)

Funeral March of a Marionette, for orchestra

1876-7 (58)

Cinq-Mars, opera

1878 (60)

Marche Religieuse, for orchestra

1879 (61)

The Redemption, oratorio

1881 (63)

Le Tribut de Zamora, opera

1884 (66)

fp Mors et Vita, oratorio

1888 (70)

Petite Symphonie for ten wind instruments