Charles François Gounod (1818-1893) was a great French composer. His father was a well-known painter and engraver of Paris, where Gounod was born. When the boy was five years old his father died, leaving but little money to his widow and children. Gounod insists that all his later success was due to the influence and training of his mother. She was herself a trained musician, and a woman of fine character. When eighteen Gounod entered the París Conservatory, where he studied under the best masters. After a year's study he won the
second prix de Rome and two years later the
grand prix de Rome. While in Rome he studied chiefly religious music which appealed to him strongly; he has written a number of masses, and two great oratories,
Life and Death, and
Redemption. Of his operas the greatest are
Faust and
Romeo and Juliet.
