GOUNOD, goo'no', Charles Francois, French composer: b. Paris, 17 June 1818; d. Saint Cloud, 18 Oct. 1893. He began his studies in the Paris Conservatory under Halevy, Le Sueur and Paer, and carried the Rome prize with his cantata 'Fernando' in 1849. While in Rome he made Italian Church music his chief study. His mass in the style of Pales trina, which he composed in Vienna in 1843 after his return from Rome, was the first fruits of this study. On arriving at Paris he took charge of the music in the church of the Mis sions Etrangeres, and produced no original work until April 1851, when his first opera, (Sappho,' appeared. Gounod's next production was the five-act opera, 'The Bleeding Nun' ('La Nonne sanglante') (1854). Following this was the comic opera founded on Moliere's 'Le Medecin malgre lui' (1858), and the grand opera (Faust et Marguerite,' which latter was a signal success and was produced with much en thusiasm in all the more important opera houses of Europe. Even in Germany, the home of the Faust legend in music and poetry, the original ity and wealth of melody of Gounod's music, together with his powerful orchestration, were so manifest above all else in the opera, that his Faust became a favorite with the public. Later operas of his were
atic compositions he wrote much religious music, notably the 'Redemption,' which was performed in England and later in Germany, and has been very popular in the United States. He also produced at Brussels his 'Mors et Vita,' and in addition wrote cantatas, sym phonies, pieces for the piano and numerous songs. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he resided in England where he formed the Gounod Choir, a chorus of mixed voices, whose concerts were widely popular. Consult Bellaigue, C., (Gounod' (Paris 1910) ; Claretie, (Portraits Contemporains' (1875) ; Voss, (Ein Lebensbild' (1895) ; Hillemacher, P. L., 'Gounod' (Paris 1905) ; Imbert, H., (Charles Gounod' (Paris 1907) ; Prudhomme, J. G., (Gounod: Sa vie et ses oeuvres' (2 vols., Paris 1911) ; Tolhurst, H., 'Gounod> (New York 1904) ; Paguerre, (Charles Gounod, sa vie et ses ceuvres' (1890) ; Boret,
Gounod, His Life and His Works' (1890).