THOMAS AMBROISE: (1811-1896) French composer of the operas Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868). A good A.L.S., Ambroise Thomas, four pages, 4to, Paris, n.d. (c.1893), to Arthur Meyer, on the printed stationery of the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Declamation, in French. The letter, a draft copy with several corrections, is written in response to a request for Thomas to write a preface to an edition of Charles Gounod´s last compositions, Thomas stating ´Quoiqu´une preface ne puisse rien ajouter l´interet que ces oeuvres, encore inedites, offriront au public, pouvais-je ne pas m´associer au nouvel hommage que les admirateurs de Gounod se proposent de lui rendre?´ (Translation: ´Although a preface can add nothing to the interest that these works, as yet unpublished, will offer the public, could I not join in the new tribute that Gounod's admirers intend to pay him?´) and continuing ´Je me joins donc a vous de tout coeur en souvenir de l´ami avec lequel j´ai traverse la vie: tous deux egalement passionnes par notre art; ayant tous les deux le culte fervent des grands maitres, et nous aimant de plus en plus a mesure que nous avancions vers le soir de notre existence. L´eloge de l´auteur de Faust n´est plus a faire. Je puis donc, sans me livrer a une analyse detaillee des oeuvres qu´on publie aujourd´hui, me borner a constater ques dans les dernieres pages qu´il a ecrites, Gounod est reste fidele a lui-meme. Les Preludes et fugues pour l´etude preparatoire du clavecin bien tempere de J. S. Bach, morceaux excellents, dignes du grande modele qui les a inspires, temoignent, une fois de plus, de l´admiration que Gounod n´a cesse de professer pour celui dont il dit "J. S. Bach est, en musique une etoile de premiere grandeur; comme Dante, Shakespeare, Michel-Ange, il marque un des ces sommets qui ne se rencontrent pas deux fois dans l´histoire d´un meme art".´ (Translation: ´I therefore join you wholeheartedly in remembering the friend with whom I went through life: both of us equally passionate about our art; both of us fervently devoted to the great masters, and loving each other more and more as we moved towards the evening of our lives. The author of Faust is widely praised. I can therefore, without indulging in a detailed analysis of the works published today, confine myself to noting that in the last pages he wrote, Gounod remained faithful to himself. The Preludes and fugues for the preparatory study of the well-tempered harpsichord by J. S. Bach, excellent pieces, worthy of the great model which inspired them, testify, once again, to the admiration that Gounod never ceased to profess for the man of whom he said "J. S. Bach is, in music, a star of the first magnitude; like Dante, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, he marks one of those summits which do not meet twice in the history of the same art".´), further adding ´Quant a ce Requiem auquel il a travaille jusqu´a son dernier jour, c´est une oeuvre d´une haute valeur, ecrite dans un style severe et pur, ou l´on retrouve l´elevation de pensee, le sentiment mystique qui caracterisent toutes ses compositions religieuses. En nous leguant, pour ainsi dire, ses dernieres inspirations, ne semble-t-il pas que Gounod ait voulu encore nous venir en aide, nous defendre contre des tendances et des exces, contre une philosophie nebuleuse qui, chaque jour d´avantage, menacent de nous faire perdre les qualites essentielles et distinctives de notre race? Ne sont-ce pas, en effet, ces qualites qui constituent le genie de Charles Gounod et la beaute de son oeuvre? L´oeuvre de toute sa vie qui lui a conquis et assure a sa memoire une juste et universelle renommee´ (Translation: ´As for this Requiem, on which he worked until his last day, it is a work of great value, written in a severe and pure style, in which we find the elevation of thought and the mystical feeling that characterise all his religious compositions. In bequeathing to us, so to speak, his last inspirations, does it not seem that Gounod still wanted to come to our aid, to defend us against tendencies and excesses, against a nebulous philosophy which, each day more so, threatens to make us lose the essential and distinctive qualities of our race? Are these not, in fact, the qualities that constitute the genius of Charles Gounod and the beauty of his work? His life's work, which won for him and for his memory a just and universal renown´). A letter of good content in which Thomas writes a moving tribute to Gounod. Some very light staining and minor age wear to the edges, otherwise VGArthur Meyer (1844-1924) French journalist, director of the daily newspaper Le Gaulois.Charles Gounod (1818-1893) French composer of the operas Faust (1859) and Romeo et Juliette (1867) as well as Ave Maria (1853), an elaboration of a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Gounod spent his last years composing sacred music and died whilst working on the setting of a Requiem for his granson Maurice, who had died in infancy. Ambroise Thomas was one of the pallbearers at Gounod´s state funeral in Paris on 27th October 1893.
