Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/105

* GOUNOD. 83 GOUBAMI. graver, who died in 1S23, leaving his widow and family in comparative poverty. In his auto- biographical Mctnoirs, published in 1805, Gounod ascribes all his artistic success to the training and influence of his mother, who was a woman of remaiUable character, as well as an accomplished musician, and who more than any one else laid the foundation of his future greatness as a com- poser. At eighteen lie entered the Paris Con- servatory, after a probationary period in the Lyc^e Saint Louis. At the Conservatory his mas- ters were Keicha, HaleA'y. Lesueur, and Paer, and at the end of his first year he won the second Prix de Rome with the cantata Marie Sluart et Rizzio. In 1830 he won the Grand Prix de Rome, obtaining twenty-five votes out of twenty- seven. Always of a devout disposition, his stay in Rome and his studies in ecclesiastical music, par- ticularly that of Palestrina, served to emphasize the religious tendency of his nature, and there is little doubt that on his return to Paris he Mould have entered the Church had not his affection for his mother been in the way. His first appointment was as organist and precentor of the Missions Etrang&res. Paris, where for five years little was heard of him until he was dis- covered through the public presentation of one of his compositions. In 1840 Mme. Viardot. then at the zenith of her fame, asked Gounod, who was visiting her, why he did not write an opera, and upon his reply that he would do so gladly if he had a libretto, bade him go and see the celebrated Augier and say that if he would write the book she herself would sing the principal part. Augier, delighted with the proposition, immediately com- menced work, and Happho was the result (1851). Altho)igh not a siiccess, the work earned for its composer a solid reputation. Uh/sse followed in 1852. shortly after his marriage to a daughter of Zimmerman, a professor at the Conservatory. He became superintendent of instruction in singing to the communal schools of Paris, r.nd also direc- tor of the choral society connected with them, succeeding Hubert, the original founder of the society. The experience gained in this employ- ment was of inestimable value to him. in that he learned to direct and utilize large masses of vocal sound so as to develop the mechanism of sonority, under very simple methods of treat- ment. La nonne snnrjlante, an opera in five acts, written in 1852, presented in 1854. and performed only eight times, was his next work, its fail- ure proving a great disappointment to him. ffnhit Cecilia's mass, perfomied for the first time in 1855. by the Association of Artist Musicians, filled in the interval between La nonne sanqlnnle and Faust, and of all his masses this has been the most popular. In 1856 he made the acquaint- ance of Barbier and Carre, who agreed to supply the libretto of Faust; but by the time it was half finished .a difficulty arose which precluded an immcdi.ate presentation, and Carvalho. who was to stage the new opera, asked that instead Gounod would write a comic opera, taking the subject from Moli^re. LjB medecin malftrc lui was accordingly written, its success being imme- diate and complete. A melodrama, Fnnst, had meanwhile been given at a rival theatre, with but little success, and the collaboratoi-s returned to their work on their own half-finished opera of Faust, which was produced on March 19th. It did not meet with immediate approval, but, has subsequentlj' come to be regarded as the composer's operatic masterpiece, stamping him as one of the world's greatest musicians. iiomeO et Juliette (1807) is, however, regarded by French critical opinion as of greater musical value tlian Faust. Smaller and less successful compositions were the following: Philimon et Baucis (1860); La Colomhe (18GU); La reinc de Saba (1802) ; Mircille (lSt;4). His sojourn in England during the Franco-Prussian War was as profitable to him as it was beneficial to the cause of music in England. He formed the G(Uinod Choir, a choral society of mixed voices, which gave very successful concerts. To this period belong Gallia, a small cantata of endur- ing merit, and tlie entr'acte music to several stage productions. His great oratorios. The lie- demption, and Mors et ita, are standard. Gou- nod's music is marked by intense spirituality and power, and while his vocal and choral work alone would rank him with the highest, his genius is more clearly shown in his orchestration. Ue died in Paris October 18, 1803. There are many good biographies of Gounod, apart from his own memoirs, tlie most comprehensive of which is Chiretie, Portraits conlcmporains (Paris. 1875). Consult also Voss, Ein Lebensbild (Leipzig, 1805). GOUPIL, goo'p8l', Jules AooLpnE (1830-83). A French painter, born in Paris. Ho was the son of Adolphe Goupil (1800-03). the well-known picture dealer, who had branches of his Paris house in Berlin and New York, and did much to introduce Frencli art into America. The younger Goupil was a pupil of Ary SchefTer and an excel- lent genre and portrait painter. Among his works are "Visite a la jeune m&re" (1865) ; "Les accordailles" (1874) ; "Le dernier jour de cap- tivite de Mme. Roland" (1880) in the Luxem- bourg, and the portraits of Arthur Picard and Camille S(5e. GOURA, goti'ra (Xeo-Lat., from the native name). A genus of remarkable fruit-eatrng pig- eons, by far the largest of the family, and natives of Java, New Guinea, and other islands of the Indian Archipelago. The best known ( Cnura coronata) is two feet four inches in length, and is a very beautiful bird, of a grayish-blue color, with parts of the back and wings black and purplish-brown, and with a broad white bar across the wings. The head is adorned with a large semicircular crest of narrow straight silky feathers, always carried erect. Gouras are in the highest esteem for the table, but attempts to introduce them into the poultry-yards of Holland have completely failed. Three species are rec- ognized. GOURAMI, goo'rA-mi (Javanese name). An excellent fish (Osplironicniis olfax). native in the rivers and brackish waters of China and the East Indian Archipelago, which has a deep oval, compressed body, large scales, and long dorsal and anal fins. The first ray of the ventral fins is ])rolonged backward as a long filament. The fish grows three to five feet long, though the usual size averages below this, and is greenish- brown obscurely banded with vertical stripes. It is one of the nest-huilding fishes, and at the breeding season forms its nest by entangling the stems and leaves of aquatic grasses. Both the male and female watch the nest for a month or more with careful vigilance, and violently drive away every other fish which approaches, till the