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Copyright: we retain the copy right on our arrangements for public performance or any other commercial application but grant you the right to download it free of charge for your own personal use.  Donation: If you enjoy the music I would be grateful if you would make a donation to the charitable Trust Fund run by Croydon Whitgift Rotary Club.

Charles Gounod

This selection form Gounod's work does not have the sunny disposition of the selections of other composers such as Faure but the steel drum and Moog synthesizer arrangements add drama to all three pieces. Gounod's Ave Maria is based on the first prelude from JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and the harp adds an extra sweetness to the tone of this arrangement. The music for Gunod's Marionette's Funeral March was composed in London, as part of the incidental music for the musical play Jeanne d' Arc. It has since become famous as the theme music for the Alfred Hitchcock television series. His Gallia is a biblical funeral cantata. It was composed in London in 1871 for the International Exhibition that marked the opening of the Royal Albert Hall, while Gounod was seeking shelter from the Franco Prussian war. It is said to express the outrage of the French people against the atrocities of the war and at one stage the steel drums in this arrangement give a strong impression of tolling bells.