Gounod had no qualms about arranging well-known works by earlier masters after his own fashion. Thus in 1852 he added a melody with its own operatic climax to the famous arpeggios of the C-major Prelude BWV 846 from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. He first published instrumental versions of it under the title “Méditation”, then tried fitting various texts to the melody until in 1859 he arrived at the definitive vocal version using the text of the Ave Maria. Already by the 1890s it was claimed that “[we] have heard this sweet melody innumerable times from the best lady singers”, and its popularity has continued to the present day. Reason enough, then, for Henle Verlag to publish an Urtext edition of this worldwide hit, based on the sources and with appropriate critical commentary.
収録作品/詳細
- Ave Maria
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序文
Without the popularity of his opera Faust, Charles Gounod (1818 – 93) would have gone down in history as the “composer of the Ave Maria”. It seems a little surprising that this prayer, without liturgical function, should have inspired him precisely in 1859, during a phase in which the composer of an extensive oeuvre of church music had temporarily lost his faith. From … 続き
作曲家について
Charles Gounod
One of the most important French composers of the Second Empire, who in his twelve operas, masses, and other liturgical works, oratorios, songs, and instrumental music consciously composed his music in a French style.
| 1818 | Born in Paris on June 17, to a painter father and pianist mother. Studies with Anton Reicha. |
| from 1836 | Studies as the Conservatoire de Paris (including with Halévy, Le Sueur, Paer); in 1839 he wins the Prix de Rome. |
| 1840–42 | Years of study in Rome. He mainly composes liturgical music. |
| 1843 | Organist and music director at the Église des Missions étrangères in Paris. |
| 1851 | Premiere of “Sapho,” his first commission from the Paris Opéra thanks to the influence of mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. |
| 1852 | Conductor of the Orphéon Choral Society in Paris. |
| 1854 | Performance of “La nonne sanglante” (“The Bloody Nun”) to a libretto by Scribe and Delavigne, with only middling success. |
| 1855 | “Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile,” one of his masterworks. |
| 1855/56 | Symphonies No. 1 in D major and No. 2 in E-flat major, which prepare the way for the French symphonic tradition after the 1870s. |
| 1859 | Breakthrough with the premiere of his opera “Faust,” after Goethe, making him one of France’s most famous opera composers. It establishes the new opera genre of drame lyrique. Composition of the “Ave Maria, mélodie religieuse adaptée au 1er prélude de J. S. Bach.” |
| 1864 | Premiere of “Mireille” (set in the rural milieu of French Provence) and in 1867 of “Roméo et Juliette” (foregoes tableaus; private intrigue) at the Théâtre-Lyrique. |
| 1870–74 | Because of the Franco-Prussian War he lives in London. |
| 1881 | After the premiere of “Le tribut de Zamora” he composes no more operas, primarily only religious works, including twelve masses and the choral work “La Rédemption” (1882). |
| 1893 | Death in Saint-Cloud near Paris on October 18. |