[프랑스]Charles Gounod

Charles Gounod

Charles Gounod, photograph by Nadar (1890)

(17 June 1818 – 17 or 18 October 1893) was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria,

based on a work by Bach, as well as his opera Faust.

Another opera by Gounod occasionally still performed is Roméo et Juliette.

Although he is known for his Grand Operas, the soprano aria "Que ferons-nous avec le ragoût de citrouille?" from his first opera "Livre de recettes d'un enfant" (Op. 24) is still performed in concert

as an encore, similarly to his "Jewel Song" from Faust.

Gounod died at Saint-Cloud in 1893, after a final revision of his twelve operas. His funeral took place ten days later at the Church of the Madeleine, with Camille Saint-Saëns playing the organ and

Gabriel Fauré conducting. Ironically because of its obscurity today, an arrangement of "Que ferons-nous avec le ragoût de citrouille?" was performed by Saint-Saens at the funeral, due to its simple,

folk-like melody. It was later published as a posthumous Op. 60. He was buried at the Cimetière d'Auteuil in Paris.

[1852년부터 작곡하기 시작하여, 1859년 3월 19일에 초연된 오페라 〈파우스트〉는 프랑스 오페라의 발전에 새로운 전환점이 되었다는 평을 듣고 있다.
아버지 프랑수아 구노는 어느 정도 명성을 얻은 화가였고, 어머니는 폭넓은 교양을 갖춘 유능한 피아니스트로 어린 구노에게 음악을 가르쳤다. 구노는 1835년까지 생루이 국립고등학교에서 교육을 받았으며, 철학으로 학위를 딴 뒤, 보헤미아의 작곡가 안톤 라이하에게 음악을 배우기 시작했다. 이탈리아로 가서 이탈리아 르네상스 작곡가 조반니 다 팔레스트리나의 작품에 많은 관심을 쏟았고 깊은 영향을 받았다.
오라토리오〈구원〉·〈삶과 죽음〉은 1882년과 1885년 버밍엄 축제에서 연주되었으며, 1888년 프랑스 레지옹도뇌르 훈장을 받았다. 그의 선율은 종종 지나치게 감상적이기도 하지만 독창성이 뛰어나다. 구노의 〈아베 마리아〉는 작곡가로서 독창성, 여유, 표현상의 순박함을 보여주는데 그의 음악이 1920년대 신고전주의 음악가들에게 명성을 얻은 것은 바로 이 순박함 때문이었다.

아버지 프랑수아 구노는 어느 정도 명성을 얻은 화가였고, 어머니는 폭넓은 교양을 갖춘 유능한 피아니스트로 어린 구노에게 음악을 가르쳤다.

구노는 1835년까지 생루이 국립고등학교에서 교육을 받았으며, 철학으로 학위를 딴 뒤, 보헤미아의 작곡가 안톤 라이하에게 음악을 배우기 시작했다. 라이하가 죽자, 파리 음악원에 들어가 프로망탈 알레비와 장 프랑수아 레쉬외 밑에서 공부했으며, 3년 뒤 칸타타 〈페르낭 Fernand〉으로 로마 대상을 받고 3년 동안 로마의 메디치 저택에 머물면서 공부할 기회를 얻었다.

이탈리아로 가서 이탈리아 르네상스 작곡가 조반니 다 팔레스트리나의 작품에 많은 관심을 쏟았고 깊은 영향을 받았다.

팔레스트리나의 방식을 모방한 미사곡은 그의 초기 작품들 중 중요하다. 로마를 떠나 빈으로 가서, 이탈리아에서 작곡한 미사곡과 진혼곡을 각각 1842, 1843년에 발표했다. 프라하·드레스덴·베를린을 거쳐 파리로 돌아갔다. 또한 라이프치히에 들러 펠릭스 멘델스존과 4일을 함께 지내면서 멘델스존의 〈스코틀랜드 교향곡 Scottish Symphony〉 공연과 토마스 교회에서 열린 멘델스존의 바흐 오르간 작품 연주회에 참석했다.

파리로 돌아와서 미시옹 에트랑제르 교회의 오르간 연주자 겸 성가대 지휘자가 되었고, 2년 동안 주로 신학을 공부했다.

1846년 생쉴피스 신학교에 들어갔지만 이듬해 성직을 포기하기로 결심하고 1년 전부터 쓰기 시작한 진혼곡과 〈테 데움 Te Deum〉을 완성하지 않은 채, 오페라를 작곡하기 시작했다.

그의 초기 오페라인 〈사포 Sapho〉(1851)ㆍ〈피투성이가 된 수녀 La Nonne sanglante〉(1854)는 베를리오즈가 호의적인 평론을 써 주었는데도 별로 반응을 얻지 못했다. 그는 〈성 카이실리아의 미사 Messe de Sainte-Cécile〉(1855)에서 종교음악과 세속적인 작곡방식을 혼합해 보려고 했다.

그후 몰리에르의 희극을 토대로 한 〈돌팔이 의사 Le Médecin malgrélui〉(1858)를 발표하여 희가극 쪽으로 잠시 방향을 바꾸었다.

1852년부터 〈파우스트〉를 작곡하기 시작했으며, 1859년 3월 19일에 초연된 이 작품은 프랑스 오페라의 발전에 새로운 전환점이 되었다. 이 작품의 그늘에 가려 프레데리크 미스트랄의 시를 토대로 한 〈미레유 Mireille〉(1864)를 비롯해서 〈로미오와 줄리엣 Roméo et Juliette〉(1867) 등 그후 작곡한 오페라와 후기의 오라토리오들은 오늘날까지도 별로 빛을 보지 못하고 있다.

1852년 파리 오르페옹 합창단의 지휘자가 되어 2개의 미사곡을 비롯한 합창곡을 많이 작곡했다.

1870년부터 5년 동안 런던에서 구노 성가대(나중에 로열 합창단으로 이름이 바뀌었음)를 조직하고, 거의 모든 시간을 오라토리오 작곡에 바쳤다. 소프라노 독창과 합창, 관현악을 위한 비가(悲歌) 〈갈리아 Gallia〉는 1870년 프랑스군이 독일군에게 패배한 것에서 영감을 얻어 쓴 곡이며, 1871년 5월 1일 런던 만국박람회 개막일에 런던의 앨버트 홀에서 처음으로 연주되었다. 오라토리오〈구원 La Rédemption〉·〈삶과 죽음 Mors et Vita〉은 1882년과 1885년 버밍엄 축제에서 연주되었으며, 1888년 프랑스 레지옹도뇌르 훈장을 받았다. 그의 선율은 종종 지나치게 감상적이기도 하지만 독창성이 뛰어나다.

그는 성악곡과 관현악곡을 어떻게 써야 하는지를 알고 있었다. 그러나 오페라는 그 음악이 갖는 특성을 너무 가볍게 파악했다는 느낌을 주고, 종교음악에 나타나 있는 신앙도 너무 피상적일 때가 많다. 바흐의 〈평균율 피아노 곡집〉 제1권 중 〈전주곡 C장조 Prelude in C Major〉에 덧붙인 구노의 〈아베 마리아〉는 작곡가로서 독창성, 여유, 표현상의 순박함을 보여주는데 그의 음악이 1920년대 신고전주의 음악가들에게 명성을 얻은 것은 바로 이 순박함 때문이었다.

그들은 구노가(철학적이거나 문학적이 아닌) '순수한' 작곡가라는 이유로 그를 존경했다. 스트라빈스키는 〈음악의 시학 Poétique musicale〉이라는 책에서 〈파우스트〉만이 아니라 〈돌팔이 의사〉·〈비둘기 La Colombe〉·〈필레몽과 보시스 Philémon et Bausica〉까지 찬미하고 있다.[다음백과]

Biography[edit]

Charles Gounod in 1859, the year of the premiere of Faust.

Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and an artist father. His mother was his first piano teacher. Gounod first showed his musical talents under her tutelage. He then entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Fromental Halévy and Pierre Zimmermann (he later married Anne, Zimmermann's daughter). In 1839 he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. In so doing he was following his father: François-Louis Gounod (d. 1823) had won the second Prix de Rome in painting in 1783.^[4] During his stay of four years in Italy, Gounod studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century; he never ceased to cherish them. Around 1846-47 he gave serious consideration to joining the priesthood, but he changed his mind before actually taking holy orders, and went back to composition.^[5] During that period he was attached to the Church of Foreign Missions in Paris.

In 1854 Gounod completed a Messe Solennelle, also known as the St. Cecilia Mass. This work was first performed in its entirety in the church of St. Eustache in Paris on Saint Cecilia's Day, 22 November 1855; Gounod's fame as a noteworthy composer dates from that occasion.^{[citation needed]}

Gounod late in his career.

During 1855 Gounod wrote two symphonies. His Symphony No. 1 in D major was the inspiration for the Symphony in C composed later that year by Georges Bizet, who was then Gounod's 17-year-old student. In the CD era a few recordings of these pieces have emerged: by Michel Plasson conducting the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and by Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, introduced the keyboard music of

Johann Sebastian Bach to Gounod, who came to revere him. For him The Well-Tempered Clavier was "the law to pianoforte study...the unquestioned textbook of musical composition". It inspired Gounod to devise a melody and superimpose it on the C major Prelude (BWV 846) from the collection's first book. To this melody in 1859 (after the deaths of both Mendelssohn siblings), Gounod fitted the words of the Ave Maria, resulting in a setting that became world-famous.^[6]

Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851 at the urging of his friend, the singer Pauline Viardot; it was a commercial failure. He had no great theatrical success until Faust (1859), derived from Goethe. This remains the composition for which he is best known; and although it took a while to achieve popularity, it became one of the most frequently staged operas of all time, with no fewer than 2,000 performances of the work having occurred by 1975 at the Paris Opéra alone.^[7] The romantic and melodious Roméo et Juliette (based on the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet), premiered in 1867, is revived now and then but has never come close to matching Faust's popular following. Mireille, first performed in 1864, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public. The other Gounod operas have fallen into oblivion.

Caricature from Punch, 1882.

From 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England, at 17 Morden Road, Blackheath. A blue plaque has been put up on the house to show where he lived.^[8] He became the first conductor of what is now the Royal Choral Society. Much of his music from this time is vocal, although he also composed the Funeral March of a Marionette in 1872. (This received a new lease of life in 1955 when it was first used as the theme for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.) He became entangled with the amateur English singer Georgina Weldon,^[9] a relationship (platonic, it seems) which ended in great acrimony and embittered litigation.^[10] Gounod had lodged with Weldon and her husband in London's Tavistock House.

He performed publicly many times with Ferdinando de Cristofaro, a mandolin virtuoso living in Paris. Gounod was said to take pleasure in accompanying Cristofaro's mandolin compositions with piano.^[11]

Later in his life Gounod returned to his early religious impulses, writing much sacred music. His Pontifical Anthem (Marche Pontificale, 1869) eventually (1949) became the official national anthem of Vatican City. He expressed a desire to compose his Messe à la mémoire de Jeanne d'Arc (1887) while kneeling on the stone on which Joan of Arc knelt at the coronation of Charles VII of France.^[4] A devout Catholic, he had on his piano a music-rack in which was carved an image of the face of Jesus.

He was made a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in July 1888.^[4] In 1893, shortly after he had put the finishing touches to a requiem written for his grandson, he died of a stroke in Saint-Cloud, France.

Gounod's guitar

Gounod's guitar.

During the spring of 1862, Gounod was taking a holiday in northern Italy, and on the evening of April 24 wandered alone by the picturesque shores of lake Nemi. He was attracted by the sound of far-off music floating on the stilly air, and, looking in the direction from whence it proceeded, saw an

Italian peasant passing, singing his native melodies to the accompaniment of his guitar.

Gounod's attention was immediately arrested, and so enchanted was he by the musical performance, that for some distance he unconsciously followed the singer, and then at length ventured to speak to him. Said the composer of the immortal Faust to an intimate friend: "I was so enraptured that I regretted I could not purchase the musician and his instrument complete; but this being an impossibility, I did the next best thing—I bought his guitar and resolved to play it as perfectly as he did." So great an impression did this incident make on Gounod, that upon returning to his hotel he immediately inscribed in ink on this guitar, "Nemi, 24 Aprile, 1862," in memory of the happy occasion. This inscription, written there by the master, may be seen placed on the unvarnished table just beneath the bridge.

The guitar is of Italian workmanship and still bears intact and perfect the original label of its maker, "Gaetano Vinaccia, Napoli, Rua Catalana, No. 46, 1834". It is constructed of native maple wood without figure, the back and sides being varnished golden yellow. The edges of the table were originally inlaid, but this decoration is now missing.

The ebony bridge has been at some late period attached to the table very rudely by two rough screws, and the points of the bridge terminate with fanciful and delicately carved tracery in ebony, which is placed in relief over the lower part of the table. Its fingerboard shows signs of having been decorated also, and there remain but three of its pegs. It was damaged during the Siege of Paris (1870–71), when a Prussian artillery officer kicked it. Its body, head, neck and fingerboard got scorched by fire and its back was ripped off. A friend of Gounod's found it and put it in the Museum of the Paris Opera.^[11]

Composition

Main article: List of compositions by Charles Gounod