Préludes et fugues

Few people know the instrumental works (symphonies, concerto for pedal-piano, pieces for piano) of the celebrated composer of Faust or Mireille. These six Preludes and Fugues, with a gavotte and 15 studies by Alexis Chauvet, show a composer concerned by contrapuntal writing in the style of Bach.

The academic teaching at the Paris Conservatoire beetween 1850 and 1900 schows the increasing importance of the music by Bach. This feature does not concern only the studies of composition, but also the instrumental classes, and specially the piano. Indeed, there is a double interest in the composing such Preludes and Fugues. Some of them are dedicated to famous personnalities, like Camille Saint-Saëns.

The publication of these works was made posthumously, and probably by Henri Busser, student and friend of Gounod, who inherited of him the position of organist in St-Clodoald in St-Cloud.