GOUNOD Charles.

Lot 263
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Estimation :
8000 - 10000 EUR
GOUNOD Charles.
MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT autograph signed " Ch. Gounod ", Marguerite à l'église. (Scene from Faust). (Accompaniment reduced to four hands), 1849; title and 26 folio pages (34.5 x 26.5 cm), in one volume in contemporary red demichagrin binding with corners. First attempt to set Faust to music, ten years before the opera. This unpublished lyrical scene [CG 15; Condé p. 472-475] is very carefully noted in brown ink on 12-line paper with the mark of the stationer Ch. Boudinel. It is a four-handed accompaniment, without vocal line, but with the words partially written between the staves; the Mauvais Esprit addresses Marguerite: "Do you remember, O Marguerite, the time when, as a child, you approached this altar, your eyes fixed on your missal? Your heart was full of innocence [...] I see... blood... on your doorstep... It is Valentin... your brother... who is being carried away"...; Marguerite cries out: "Despair... and misfortune in my soul... [...] Have mercy, Lord?"... Etc. We refer to the excellent commentary by Gérard Condé, who analyses these pages in detail, and from which we will quote only these few lines: "The music has no relation to that of the corresponding picture in the opera. However, the key, C minor, is identical, as is the decision to finish in C major; the imitation of the church style (harmonised plainchant) constitutes another common point, as do the visible interventions of an organ [...] The corresponding scene in the 1859 opera is more compact, more sparing of effects and ideas; its dramatic scope is undeniably superior. Gounod could have written an interesting Faust as early as 1849, but he would not have composed the Faust that made him famous.
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