page_title: Symphony in C (Bizet)
section_title: Similarities with Gounod's Symphony in D
hierarchical_section_title: Symphony in C (Bizet) / History / Similarities with Gounod's Symphony in D
caption_attribution_description: English: Example of similarities between Gounod &amp; Bizet symphonies
context_page_description: The Symphony in C is an early work by the French composer Georges Bizet. According to Grove's Dictionary, the symphony "reveals an extraordinarily accomplished talent for a 17-year-old student, in melodic invention, thematic handling and orchestration." Bizet started work on the symphony on 29 October 1855, four days after turning 17, and finished it roughly a month later. It was written while he was studying at the Paris Conservatoire under the composer Charles Gounod, and was evidently a student assignment. Bizet showed no apparent interest in having it performed or published, and the piece was never played in his lifetime. He used certain material from the symphony in later works, however. There is no mention of the work in Bizet's letters, and it was unknown to his earlier biographers. His widow, Geneviève Halévy, gave the manuscript to Reynaldo Hahn, who passed it along with other papers to the archives of the conservatory library, where it was found in 1933 by Jean Chantavoine.
context_section_description: The numerous stylistic, orchestral, melodic and harmonic similarities between the Gounod and Bizet symphonies make it clear that Bizet was emulating and, in certain cases, directly quoting his teacher. As Howard Shanet, who revived Gounod's symphony with the Columbia University Orchestra in 1955, observed, "the first glance at [Gounod's] score ... made it clear that the young Bizet had copied all its most conspicuous features in his Symphony in C." There are, in fact, so many references, parodies and quotations from Gounod in Bizet's work that it is likely the young composer was consciously paying homage to his celebrated teacher. His close involvement with Gounod's orchestral score in realising the two-piano transcription would have given Bizet the opportunity to explore many of its orchestral nuances and incorporate them into his own work and may explain why Bizet's first full-fledged symphonic work was such an unusually well-polished and well-orchestrated composition. As Bizet would later write to his former teacher "You were the beginning of my life as an artist. I spring from you. You are the cause, I am the consequence." This sentiment permeates the compositional spirit of the Symphony in C.
  All four movements of Bizet's symphony employ devices found in the earlier Gounod piece. The two inner movements are strikingly similar in form, rhythm and melodic shape.
  First movement
  
  Like Gounod, Bizet bookends the opening movement with an opening tutti chord and closing codetta that are essentially parodic in form. In two passages, at measures 86ff and 141ff Bizet quotes directly from Gounod, measures 119ff and mm. 331ff. (See illustration.)
  Second movement
  
  Bizet draws very closely from Gounod's Allegretto moderato in the Symphony in D. Like Gounod, Bizet composed a small fugue as the development section, using an identical scoring in the order of entry. Both start sotto voce with staccato articulation and share a closely similar phrase shape. And in both works, the first theme is brought back in the recapitulation over passages in the strings that recall the fugal development.
  Third movement
  
  Although quite different in tempo and character, Bizet's scherzo makes several references to the Gounod's scherzo in the trio section. Both are variants of the opening theme and both are played on the woodwinds over a string pedal point.
  Final movement
  
  Beyond a general thematic sympathy between the two finales, Bizet directly imitates Gounod's closing phrase in his own work, drawing on the same rhythmic shape and architecture to create a miniature coda.
  Finally, the scoring for both works is identical: a smaller, classical orchestra (omitting, for instance, piccolo, harp or trombones).
  Although Bizet's symphony was closely drawing on Gounod's work, critics view it as a much superior composition, showing a precocious and sophisticated grasp of harmonic language and design, as well as originality and melodic inspiration. Since it has resurfaced, Bizet's Symphony in C has far outshone Gounod's work in the repertoire, both in terms of performance and numbers of recordings.
caption: An example of Bizet's quoting Gounod
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