Overwhelmed, Pierre rushed into the room and asked Gounod to play it again, and subsequently scribbled down the piece in musical notations. One evening, Gounod improvised an alluring melody over Bach’s Prelude in C and was overheard by Zimmermann. Anna’s father, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann was a famous composer and pianist who had taught at the Paris Conservatory for many years. In 1852, Gounod used to spend several evenings at his Paris home accompanied by his fiancée Anna Zimmermann. Felix subsequently played some of Bach’s organ works in a private concert in the “Thomaskirche.” Incidentally, Bach had been a choirmaster there.

They included a variety of Felix Mendelssohn's compositions and also numerous concertos, preludes, fugues, and sonatas of Bach.” Later, Gounod was invited by Felix Mendelssohn to visit Leipzig. She introduced me to various masterpieces in German music, including some works of Johann Sebastian Bach. According to Charles, “Fanny would play the piano with a palpable simplicity and readiness, signifying her passion towards it. She and her husband became close friends with Gounod. Out of the 35 measures present in the Prelude, there are 34 measures of “16th-note arpeggios” and one measure consisting of a single, “whole-note C-major chord.” The work can be characterized by its inventive and rich harmony, and frequent cacophony.Ĭharles Gounod considered Johann Sebastian as the “Master of masters.” He was introduced to some of Bach’s work on the keyboard in 1840 when he met Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The “Prelude in C major” is the first piece of this collection and is a famous piece among piano students since that time. Johann Sebastian Bach published “Book 1” of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” in 1772. The melody of this song was crafted some 80 years after its accompaniment, while Gounod added words to his composition after another seven years. The two great composers, in this case, Charles Gounod and Johann Sebastian Bach were not even contemporaries. Charles-François Gounod’s “Ave Maria” is a curious case in music history – the result of a musical collaboration that expanded through a century.

Ave maria bach gounod e flat major