After a classical education, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1837. In Rome he developed his interest in church music.

He returned to Paris in 1843, after developing a wide knowledge of earlier and contemporary music abroad.

Gounod achieved considerable success in the theatre, particularly with his famous opera "Faust" (1859), but the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 brought a largely unprofitable interruption.

Gounod’s opera "Faust", based on Goethe's drama that had a wide influence over artists of all kinds during the 19th century, is concerned principally with Faust's seduction of Marguerite, whose own redemption is secured, while Faust remains the prey of the devil Mephistopheles.

Recital arias from Faust include the Mephistophelean Le veau d'or (The Golden Calf), the tenor Salut! demeure and Marguerite's Jewel Song Ah! je ris.

Choral societies have enjoyed the famous Soldiers' Chorus, while the Walpurgisnacht ballet music has provided orchestras with an item of concert repertoire.

Gounod's Romèo et Juliette, an operatic version of Shakespeare's play, was staged in Paris in 1867.

Juliette's Waltz Song, Je veux vivre, is a familiar soprano aria, while tenors have expressed their feelings in Romèo's L'amour, l'amour.

Gounod's church music has seemed to some excessively sweet, a charge that cannot justly be levelled at the Messe solennelle de St. Cècile (the Solemn Mass of St. Cecilia), patron saint of music.

By far the most generally known of his religious music, not intended for church use, was the Ave Maria derived from the first Prelude of Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues.

- MIDI FILE - "Ave Maria" (2'59'')

Gounod himself and others transcribed the piece for various combinations of instruments.

Gounod wrote two symphonies, but it is his Petite symphonie of 1885, for ten wind instruments, is more attractive.

- MIDI FILE - Petite symphonie for wind instruments (7'44'')

His energetic Saltarello, an Italian dance akin to the Tarantella, was seemingly written in 1865.

Although Gounod happily provided music to suit English sentimental taste, in songs suitable for the Victorian drawing-room, he added music of more substance in some of his many French songs, even those of a certain sentimental piety, such as Prière du soir.

There is a setting of Venise, a poem by Alfred de Musset, and Victor Hugo's Sèrènade.