Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music
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152 • GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENCK
GILBERT, [SIR] WILLIAM SCHWENCK. See SULLIVAN, AR-
THUR.
GINASTERA, ALBERTO (11 APRIL 1916–25 JUNE 1983). Ar-
gentinean composer. He studied in Buenos Aires at the Williams
Conservatory and the National Conservatory, graduating from the
latter in 1938. Having already received considerable recognition with
the successful 1936 premiere of his ballet Panambí, he soon achieved
national stature, and in 1941 he received a faculty appointment at
the National Conservatory. Encountering opposition from the new
Juan Peron regime after World War II, he decided to visit the United
States, where he stayed from December 1945 to March 1947, sup-
ported by a previously awarded Guggenheim grant. During this time
he studied under Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, and visited several
leading schools of music. Upon his return to Argentina, he held a
number of teaching and administrative posts. He served as dean of
musical arts and sciences at the Catholic University of Argentina
(1958–63), and as first director of the Latin American Center for Ad-
vanced Musical Studies at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella (1963–71),
where he encouraged the study of avant-garde techniques. Despite
international renown, he encountered repeated opposition at home,
and in 1971 he moved to Switzerland, where he settled with his new
wife, the Argentinean cellist Aurora Natola.
In his music, Ginastera combined traditional nationalist elements
with increasingly subjective, abstract, and avant-garde techniques.
His choral works include early neo-Classical works such as Psalm
150, op. 5 (submitted in 1938 to the National Conservatory as his
graduation piece) and Lamentaciones de Jeremias Propheta [The
Lamentations of Jeremiah], op. 14 (1946). Later works include Mu-
sic from Bomarzo, op. 34a, a suite for chorus and orchestra based on
his controversial (and banned) opera of the same name (1970); and
Turbae ad passionem gregorianam, a Passion oratorio for T, Bar.,
B-Bar., chorus, boys’ chorus, and orch. (1974), premiered in 1975 by
the Mendelssohn Club Chorus of Philadelphia under Robert Page.
GIOVANNELLI, RUGGIERO (C. 1560–7 JANUARY 1625). Italian
composer, active in Rome. In 1594 he succeeded Giovanni Pierluigi
da Palestrina as maestro di cappella of the Cappella Giulia at the
Basilica of St. Peter. His extant choral works include many madri-
gals: three volumes for five voices were published successively in
GLEE • 153
1586, 1593, and 1599 (republished as one set in 1606), two volumes
for four voices were published in 1585 and 1589, respectively, and
additional madrigals appeared elsewhere. He also wrote villanellas,
canzonettas (both secular and spiritual), and laude. His madrigals
(especially the first two sets for five voices and those for four voices)
are lighter than the works of many of his contemporaries, apparently
influenced by the canzonet style. Sacred works include five masses
for four to 12 voices, and dozens of motets for two, five, eight, or
12 voices (two volumes published successively in 1593 and 1604).
While the five-voice motets generally employ the conservative,
polyphonic style, other sacred works embrace polychoral and con-
certante techniques.
GIPPS, RUTH (20 FEBRUARY 1921–23 FEBRUARY 1999). Eng-
lish pianist, oboist, composer, and conductor. At the Royal College
of Music she studied composition under Ralph Vaughan Williams,
and trained as a pianist and oboist. Encouraged to pursue conducting
by the conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, she became
chorus master of the City of Birmingham Choir and later conduc-
tor of an amateur orchestra in that city. In 1948 she graduated from
the University of Durham with a doctorate in music. She taught at
Trinity College, London (1959–66), the Royal College of Music
(1967–77), and Kingston Polytechnic (1977–79). As a composer,
she was particularly successful in orchestral and chamber genres.
Her choral works include The Temptation of Christ, op. 6, for S, T,
SATB, and orch. (1939); Rhapsody without Words, op. 18, for S,
small orch. (1941); The Cat, op. 32, for A, Bar., double chorus, and
orch. (1947); The Prophet, op. 35, for spkr., S, B, chorus, children’s
chorus, and orch. (1950); Goblin Market, op. 40, for S, S, SSA, and
str. orch. (1953); and Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, op. 55, for
SSTAB and org. (1959).
GLEE. An unaccompanied partsong, usually for male voices in three
or more parts (with an alto part sung by falsettists), which flourished
in England from about 1750, when catches fell out of favor, until
the early 1900s. The performance and writing of glees was initially
encouraged by male catch clubs who, in rediscovering the beauty of
English madrigals, began seeking new partsongs of commensurate
artistic worth. In general, the glee was modeled after the madrigal,
with its emphasis on giving individual expression to each text phrase.
154 • GLICK, SRUL IRVING
More modern characteristics included detailed dynamic markings,
multisectional forms, and subject matter that ranged beyond romantic
love. Glees later gave rise to the term glee club, signifying the kind
of chorus performing them; glee clubs became especially popular at
colleges in the United States. Present-day glee clubs with notable
reputations include those at Cornell University, Harvard Univer-
sity, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and Yale
University.
GLICK, SRUL IRVING (8 SEPTEMBER 1934–17 APRIL 2002).
Canadian composer, radio producer, conductor, and teacher. He
was born in Toronto to a Russian emigré who served as a cantor
in several of the city’s synagogues. He studied composition at the
University of Toronto and took further lessons with Darius Milhaud
in Aspen, and with Louis Saguer and Max Deutsch in Paris. From
1962 to 1986 he worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Company
(CBC) as a music producer. In 1969 he became the choir director
at Toronto’s Beth Tikvah Synagogue, and in 1978 he became the
composer-in-residence there. Consequently, his compositions in-
clude nearly 200 liturgical pieces (many of them choral), written in
a lyrical and expressive style that synthesizes Jewish and classical
musical traditions.
As a composer, he is known for his choral works, which have
been performed by leading Canadian choirs. Works include Northern
Sketches, for SATB, vn., vc., and pf. (1982); The Hour Has Come,
for SATB and orch. (1985); Sing unto the Lord a New Song, a suite
of psalm settings for SATB and hp./pf./orch. (1986); Canticle of
Peace (1987); Songs of Creation, for SATB, brass qnt., 4 perc., and
org. (1989); Moments in Time, for Tr. chorus and pf. (1990); In Me-
moriam Leonard Bernstein, for SATB and pf. (1993); Triumph of
the Spirit, for SATB and orch. (1995); In Memory of Yitzhak Rabin:
We Miss You, Shalom (1997), not to mention many pieces left in
manuscript.
GLINKA, MIKHAIL (20 MAY/1 JUNE 1804–15 FEBRUARY
1857). Russian composer, rooted in 18th-century European clas-
sicism, who pointed the way to a nationalist style. He formed an
early conception of Russian musical traditions from hearing peasant
singing, church choirs, and church bells. Experience with the music
of German and Austrian Classical composers was followed by a
GOMBERT, NICOLAS • 155
three-year stay in Italy (1830–33), where he became thoroughly con-
versant with Italian opera. Studies in Germanic counterpoint led to
a new seriousness, and ultimately to a Russian manner, which came
to expression in the opera A Life for the Tsar (1836). The success of
the opera led to an appointment at the Court Chapel Choir, a male
establishment, for which he recruited singers in 1838. However, he
left the position at the end of 1839. His second (and last) opera, Rus-
lan and Lyudmila (1842) was only moderately successful. The next
decade saw several international trips, including two lengthy stays in
Paris (where he became a close acquaintance of Hector Berlioz), one
in Spain, and visits to Warsaw and Berlin.
Despite his significance for the development of a Russian national-
ist style and a lifelong interest in writing art songs, Glinka left only
about a dozen choral pieces, most of them secular. Examples include
Come di gloria al nome, for SATB and str. (c. 1828); Velik nash Bog
[Our God Is Great], a polonaise for SATB and orch.; Kheruvimskaya
[Cherubic Hymn], for six-part chorus (1837); and Yekteniya per-
vaya, [First Litany], for SATB (?1856).
GLUCK, CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD VON (2 JULY 1714–15
NOVEMBER 1787). Bohemian composer, active especially at the
imperial court in Vienna and in Paris. Highly revered throughout
Europe in his day, he is remembered especially for his reform operas.
Other than choral movements in his operas, he left virtually no choral
music.
GOMBERT, NICOLAS (C. 1495–C. 1560). Franco-Flemish com-
poser. Reportedly a student of Josquin des Prez, he spent much
of his life in the chapel of Emperor Charles V—as a singer (from
1526), Master of the Children (from 1529), and as unofficial court
composer. He traveled with the court chapel to Spain, Italy, Austria,
and Germany. He was reportedly exiled to the galleys for miscon-
duct around 1540 but returned by 1547 (though little is known of his
subsequent career).
His musical style is characterized by pervading imitation involving
most of five or six voices (unlike Josquin, who often wrote reduced
textures in which pairs of voices alternate), largely syllabic declama-
tion, overlapping phrases, and dense textures that stress the lower
range. Extant works include 10 masses (one is incomplete), more
than 160 motets, and 8 Magnificats. Almost all of the masses are
156 • GÓRECKI, HENRYK
based on motets or chansons. The borrowed material is treated freely
but systematically, with sections of material appearing in the same
order as in the original. Reduced scoring typically appears in parts
of the Credo and Sanctus, while an expanded texture is typical of the
final Agnus Dei statement.
Gombert’s motets, many of which employ nonliturgical, biblical
texts, are classical examples of imitative technique (see POINTS OF
IMITATION). Ostinato, canon, cantus firmus, and double texts
rarely appear. In general the works are characterized by continu-
ously flowing, placid lines (without obvious seams), equal treatment
of the voices, occasional indifference to text accents, and pungent
dissonances. They are musically expressive yet not dramatic. The
Magnificat settings (one on each of the eight church modes) alter-
nate polyphonic sections for four voices (sometimes expanded at the
end), with intoned passages. Like the motets, most of the more than
70 surviving chansons favor imitative textures and seldom stress
word-painting.
GÓRECKI, HENRYK (6 DECEMBER 1933– ). Polish composer,
whose individualistic style has continued to evolve, while always
emphasizing expressiveness. Early in his career he became known in
Poland as a leading composer of the avant garde. During the 1960s he
began to move away from serialism, stressing technical and formal
clarity. From 1970 until 1986 he focused largely on vocal music, a
shift that also involved a greater emphasis on melody, a more conso-
nant (diatonic and modal) harmonic language, and the incorporation
of elements from Polish folk and sacred music, giving his music an
individualistic, nationalist voice. Often his works are characterized
by sustained textures and dense counterpoint.
Choral works include Epitafium, op. 12, for chorus and insts.
(1958); Do matki (Ad matrem), op. 29, for S, chorus, and orch.
(1971); Symphony no. 2 “Kopernikowska” [Copernican], op. 31, for
S, Bar., chorus, and orch. (1972); Euntes ibant et flebant op. 32, a
psalm setting for chorus (1972); Dwie piosenki [Two Little Songs],
op. 33 (1972); Amen, op. 35 (1975); Beatus vir op. 38, for Bar., cho-
rus, and orch. (1979); Szeroka woda [Broad Waters] op. 39 (1979);
Miserere, op. 44 (1981, rev. 1987); Wieczór ciemny się uniża [Dark
Evening Is Falling], op. 45 (1981); Wisło moja, Wisło szara [My
Vistula, Gray Vistula], op. 46 (1981); Trzy kołysanki [Three Lulla-
GOSSEC, FRANÇOIS-JOSEPH • 157
bies], op. 49 (1984); Ach, mój wianku lewandowy [O, My Garland of
Lavender], op. 50 (1984); Idzie chmura, pada deszcz [Cloud Comes,
Rain Falls], op. 51 (1984); Pieśni Maryjne [Marian Songs], op. 54
(1985); Pod Twoją obronę [Under Your Protection], op. 56 (1985);
Na Anioł Pański biją dzwony [The Bells Ring Out for the Angelus
Domini], op. 57 (1986); Pieśni kościelne (1986); Totus Tuus, op. 60
(1987); Przybądz Duchu Swięty [Come Holy Spirit], op. 61 (1988);
Salve, sidus Polonorum, op. 72, for chorus, perc., 2 pf., and org.
(2000); and Lobgesang, for chorus and glock. (2000).
GOSS, JOHN (27 DECEMBER 1800–10 MAY 1880). English or-
ganist, composer, and teacher. He received his early music education
in the Chapel Royal. In 1838 he became organist at St. Paul’s Ca-
thedral, and in 1856 one of the composers to the Chapel Royal. He
is remembered for his glees and sacred music, the latter category in-
cluding 45 anthems, a half-dozen services, a Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis (1854), and 2 Te Deum settings (1857, 1872).
GOSSEC, FRANÇOIS-JOSEPH (17 JANUARY 1734–16 FEBRU-
ARY 1829). French composer and conductor who began his career
as a court composer before working independently as a conductor of
subscription concerts and operas. He then became one of the leading
composers of the French Revolution. Having been born in Hainaut (a
historical region in the Low Countries, now a province in southwestern
Belgium), he sang as a chorister in several church and chapel choirs
(including Antwerp Cathedral) before moving to Paris in 1751, where
he became a violin and bass player in the private orchestra of Le Riche
de la Pouplinière, a rich financier and highly influential patron of the
arts. La Pouplinière’s music director at the time was Jean Philippe
Rameau. When Rameau fell out of favor in 1753, the orchestra was
led briefly by Johann Stamitz, until Gossec assumed the leadership
in 1756, retaining it until La Pouplinière’s death in 1762.
After 1761 Gossec wrote numerous theatrical works, while continu-
ing to compose instrumental pieces. In 1769 Gossec founded the Con-
cert des Amateurs, an orchestra that soon gained international renown.
In 1773 he relinquished the position to assume joint directorship of
the Concert Spirituel, where he served until 1777, performing some
of his own compositions. Other administrative and conducting posts
followed, including a position as inspector of teaching and professor of
composition at the Paris Conservatoire upon its creation in 1795.
158 • GOUDIMEL, CLAUDE
During the Revolutionary period, Gossec wrote grandiose music
for public outdoor ceremonies honoring the revolution, often using
vast forces. This love of the spectacular, which had already emerged
in Messe des morts (1759), reached greater expression in works such
as the Te Deum, which was performed on the first anniversary of the
fall of the Bastille by 1,000 singers and a large orchestra. In addi-
tion to the choral works already mentioned, his extant compositions
include more than 35 revolutionary pieces for choir and instruments
(often band), 2 masses, a Requiem, the oratorio La nativité (1774),
motets, and some secular pieces.
GOUDIMEL, CLAUDE (BORN 1514–20; DIED 28–31 AUGUST
1572). French composer and music publisher/editor. He is known to
have been in Paris by 1549, when he was a student at the university.
During the early 1550s he worked for the music publisher Nicolas
Du Chemin. He evidently converted to Protestantism sometime be-
fore 1557, when he moved to the Huguenot city of Metz. He died 15
years later in Lyon, during the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacres.
He is remembered for his (mostly four-part) psalm settings. Most
of these are based on the Genevan psalter in French translation. The
traditional melodies are incorporated in various ways, including as
cantus firmus in the topmost voice, which was unusual for the time.
Psalm settings surviving complete include 67 in motet style, ap-
pearing in eight volumes (1551–66), and a set of all 150 psalms, in
essentially note-against-note style (1564, reissued in various guises).
He also wrote 3 masses, some motets, and 69 chansons for three and
four voices.
GOUNOD, CHARLES-FRANÇOIS (17 JUNE 1818–18 OCTO-
BER 1893). Prolific French composer, who wrote in many genres.
He is now best known for the opera, Faust, and a descant melody
to the first prelude of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered
Clavier, Book I. His compositions are often informed by a religious
enthusiasm that prizes simplicity and emotional transparency, and
which therefore sometimes gives way to sentimentality.
As a child he showed promise in drawing and music (especially
composition). Once enrolled at the Paris Conservatory, he studied
with a series of teachers. Winning the Prix de Rome, he traveled to
Italy in 1840, where he was unimpressed with the operas of Gaetano
Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini, but enamored with the counter-
GOUNOD, CHARLES-FRANÇOIS • 159
point of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and with the religious
legacy of Rome in general, which inspired him to write a mass with
orchestral accompaniment and a ten-part, unaccompanied Te Deum.
A visit to Austria and Germany brought him under the influence of
Felix Mendelssohn.
Upon his return to Paris in 1843, Gounod took up a church posi-
tion, where he hoped to begin a revival of sacred music. He began
seminary studies, intending to enter the priesthood, but abandoned
his plans by the time of the 1848 Revolution. Widening his social
circle allowed him to try his hand at opera, but without success. In
1851 he became director of the Paris Orphéon, a network of egali-
tarian choral societies for the middle class, and the director of vocal
instruction in Paris’s public schools. These positions led him to write
unaccompanied choral music and patriotic choruses, and to organize
and conduct mass choir festivals. During this time he became a
significant mentor to Georges Bizet and Camille Saint-Saëns. A
second failed opera was followed by two symphonies and the well-
received Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile (1855). The initial 1859
Parisian production of the opera Faust was only moderately success-
ful. However, its success in Germany and elsewhere led eventually to
approval in Paris as well. Of the five operas that followed, the most
successful was Roméo et Juliette, whose premiere during the Interna-
tional Exposition of 1867 led to international renown.
Often suffering from despondency, Gounod twice returned to
Rome to find renewed inspiration in the city’s mixture of Christian
and Classical culture. The first of these trips (1862) was followed
by the writing of an opera on the subject of early Christian martyrs,
and the oratorio La rédemption. During the Franco-Prussian War
(1870–71) Gounod and his family took refuge in England. The vic-
tory of the Germans (due in part to their superior technology), rein-
forced Gounod’s conviction that true progress lay not in technologi-
cal complexity but in pursuing “the simplicity of truth and the truth of
simplicity,” a philosophy he readily applied to musical composition,
rejecting what he regarded as self-aggrandizing artifice.
In London Gounod was commissioned to write a choral work
for the opening of Royal Albert Hall (1871). The resulting patriotic
motet, Gallica, a lament on the destruction of Jerusalem, was highly
successful, leading to an invitation for him to become the leader of
a newly formed choral society at Albert Hall. For three years he was
160 • GRADUALE
closely associated with a singer and teacher, Georgina Weldon, who
took it upon herself to act as his champion and caretaker, advising
him on business matters such as the collection of royalties. During
this time he composed many works (including choral works for a
choral society Weldon founded under his patronage). When he even-
tually escaped back to Paris in 1874, he found himself enmeshed in
a legal wrangle with the possessive Weldon.
During his later career, his religious works were more success-
ful than his operas; especially in Victorian England, where he was
regarded as the successor to George Frideric Handel and Felix
Mendelssohn. There he conducted 270 singers in a successful 1882
premiere of the oratorio La rédemption, which soon became popular
elsewhere. He was commissioned to write a second oratorio, Mors
et vita. While he was unable to conduct the 1885 premiere because
of legal action by Weldon, he did conduct it the following year at
Albert Hall in a performance requested by the Queen. In addition to
these two oratorios, so popular with the middle class, Gounod’s other
choral music includes some 20 masses (among which are 3 Requi-
ems and the popular Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile, for S, T, B,
SATB, orch., and org. [1855]); oratorios and cantata-like works; and
some 150 motets, partsongs, and smaller devotional works.
His style ranges from austere, a cappella writing (influenced by
chant and the sacred music of Renaissance masters) to the extrava-
gantly Romantic (with virtuosic instrumental parts, grandiose effects,
and lush, chromatic harmonies). A populist strain is often evident,
especially in the works written for choral societies.
GRADUALE [GRADUAL]. A relatively elaborate responsorial
chant in the Roman Mass, sung after the Epistle on most Sundays
of the church year. The historical core repertory contains 105 gradu-
ales. All but one (Locus iste) use biblical texts: 94 use psalm texts
(4 are psalm compilations), and 10 use other biblical texts. Other
chants were subsequently added to the core repertory, among them,
Benedicta et venerabilis for the votive Mass of the Virgin Mary and
Requiem aeternam for the Mass for the Dead.
GRAINGER, PERCY (8 JULY 1882–20 FEBRUARY 1961). Aus-
tralian pianist and composer who lived in the Unites States for most
of his career. His highly autonomous philosophy of life (emphasizing
an “all-roundedness” that prized sex, athleticism, ethnic purity, lan-
GRANDI, ALESSANDRO • 161
guages, and art) led to an eccentric lifestyle and nontraditional musi-
cal values. After studies in Frankfurt (1895–1901), he established a
career as pianist and composer in London (1901–14), while returning
to Australasia on two occasions. Often he gathered folksongs during
his travels. With the beginning of World War I, he moved to the
U.S., where he became popular and financially successful. During the
1930s he became increasingly active as an educator.
Believing that music should be freed from standardization, classi-
fication, and specialization (all of which he associated with elitism),
Grainger pursued an individualistic path that included arranging folk
material and the works of others, developing a system of “elastic
scoring” (so that his pieces could be performed with almost any
combination of available instruments), and increasingly adventurous
experiments to “free” music from the traditional strictures of West-
ern art music (the results ranging from “beatless music” to “gliding
tones,” and ultimately, to the invention of electronic music ma-
chines). He claimed to aim at a “polyphonic chord style,” in which
free part-writing produced mild dissonances. In addition to arrange-
ments of folksongs, he wrote original choral works, such the Kipling
Jungle Book Cycle, for chorus and chbr. orch. (1898–1947).
GRAND MOTET. See MOTET.
GRANDI, ALESSANDRO (1586–AFTER JUNE 1630). Italian com-
poser. With the exception of a few years at San Marco (St. Mark’s
Basilica) in Venice (1604–8) he spent his early career in Ferrara,
where he held several appointments as maestro di cappella, the
last one being at the city’s cathedral (1615–17). In 1617 he moved
back to Venice, where he worked under Claudio Monteverdi at the
cathedral. In 1627 he became maestro di cappella at Santa Maria
Maggiore in Bergamo. Having his own choir and access to instru-
mentalists there, he could compose in the grand style he had learned
in Venice. Nevertheless, of his more than 200 motets with continuo
(and often violins), two-thirds are for one or two voices in the new
concertato and monodic styles; others are for four or five voices.
His works with instruments were imitated by other composers; espe-
cially also by Heinrich Schütz, who took the sacred concerto style
back to Germany after his second visit to Venice. Grandi’s other
works include five masses for three, four, and eight voices with con-
tinuo, Magnificats, and dozens of psalm settings. Of more than 85