Canon
Where to start with Gounod
Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles-
StageFaust — Opera
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VocalMesse solennelle de Sainte Cécile
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OrchestralSymphony no. 1 in D
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Chamber6 Mélodies, for horn and piano
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StageRoméo et Juliette — Opera
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VocalA Cécile, song for voice and piano
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VocalA la Madone
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VocalA toi mon coeur
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VocalA une bourse, song for voice and piano
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VocalA une jeune fille, song for voice and piano
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VocalA une jeune grecque, song for voice and piano
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VocalAn Evening Service, for chorus and organ
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VocalAu printemps
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VocalAve verum
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OrchestralBacchanalia, for balalaika and orchestra
Listening guide
Hand-curated paths into Gounod's catalogueMost Popular
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Faust (opera)
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Ave Maria (over Bach Prelude in C)
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Roméo et Juliette (opera)
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Funeral March of a Marionette
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Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile
Most Acclaimed
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Faust
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Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile
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Petite Symphonie for winds
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String Quartet in A minor
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Mireille (opera)
Most Weird
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Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécilethe Sanctus features a solo soprano against a held note — hauntingly beautiful and structurally odd
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Funeral March of a Marionettethe Alfred Hitchcock Presents theme — written as a joke but outlived everything else he composed
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Petite Symphonienine winds — surprisingly modern and transparent
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Polyeucte (opera)early Christian martyr opera — rarely performed
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String Quartet in A minorhis only chamber work — unexpectedly dark
Similar composers
Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinityWorks 92
- Stage
- Faust — Opera
- Roméo et Juliette — Opera
- Cinq Mars — Opera
- La Nonne sanglante — Opera
- La reine de Saba — Opera
- Le tribut de Zamora — Opera
- Mireille — Opera
- Philémon et Baucis — Opera
- Polyeucte — Opera
- Sapho — Opera
- Vocal
- Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile
- A Cécile, song for voice and piano
- A la Madone
- A toi mon coeur
- A une bourse, song for voice and piano
- A une jeune fille, song for voice and piano
- A une jeune grecque, song for voice and piano
- An Evening Service, for chorus and organ
- Au printemps
- Ave verum
- Beware: I know a maiden, song for voice and piano
- Blessures, song for voice and piano
- Boire à l'ombre, song for voice and piano
- Boléro, song for voice and piano
- Chanson du printemps
- Chanson printanière, for voice and piano
- Chants sacrés, 60 part songs for voices and organ in 3 volumes
- D'un coeur qui t'aime, for soprano, alto, and piano
- Dans cette étable, for chorus and orchestra
- Donne-moi cette fleur, song for voice and piano
- Gallia: Lamentation, motet for soprano, chorus, orchestra, and organ
- Hynne a la Nuit
- Invocation
- It is not always May, song for voice and piano
- Jésus de Nazareth, for baritone and piano with organ ad lib., "Nazareth"
- L'absent
- L'âme d'un ange, song for voice and piano
- La Reine Du Matin
- La chanson du pêcheur, for voice and piano
- La rédemption, trilogy of oratorios for soloists, chorus and orchestra
- La salutation angélique, song for voice, piano, violin or cello and organ ad lib.
- Le Vendredi-Saint, for chorus
- Le ciel a visité la terre, song for voice or unison chorus and piano
- Le soir
- Le temps des roses
- Les deux pigeons
- Les sept paroles du N.S. Jésus-Christ sur la croix
- Mass in B flat major
- Mass no. 2 in F major, op. 1
- Messe brève no. 5 aux séminaires, for 2 tenors, bass, male chorus and organ
- Messe brève no. 7 aux Chapelles
- Messe brève pour les morts, for soloists, double chorus and orchestra in F
- Messe solennelle no. 4 for chorus and 2 organs, "Messe Chorale"
- Miserere, for 4 soloists, chorus and organ ad lib.
- Missa angeli custodes, for soloists, chorus and organ
- Mon habit, song for voice and piano
- Mors et Vita
- My true love hath my heart, for chorus and piano
- Noël, for soprano, alto, female chorus and piano with organ ad lib.
- O salutaris, for chorus and piano or organ
- Oh! that we two were maying, song for voice and piano with harmonium and viola ad lib.
- Pater noster, for chorus and organ
- Primavera, song for voice and piano
- Prière du soir
- Prière du soir, for chorus
- Quand l'enfant prie, song for voice and piano
- Queen of Love, song for voice and piano
- Regina coeli, for 5 voices
- Repentir
- Réponse de Medjé, song for voice and piano
- Sérénade, "Chantez, riez, dormez"
- There is a green hill far away
- Tobie
- Under Thy Grace
- Viens, les gazons sont verts
- Vierges d'Athenes, for voice and piano
- Orchestral
- Symphony no. 1 in D
- Bacchanalia, for balalaika and orchestra
- Concertino for Flute and Chamber Orchestra
- Fantasy on the Russian National Anthem, for piano and orchestra
- Funeral March of a Marionette in D minor
- Marche pontificale, "Marche romaine"
- Marche solennelle in E flat major
- Marche-Fanfare for 12th Hussars in E flat major, for brass band, "La Ronde"
- Petite Symphonie in B flat major for 9 Wind Instruments
- Saltarello
- Symphony no. 2 in E flat major
- Chamber
- 6 Mélodies, for horn and piano
- Petite symphonie in E flat major for Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Horns and 2 Bassoons
- Keyboard
- Lullaby
- O Divine Redeemer!, for organ
- Offertorium for Organ