This sheet music for unaccompanied standard mixed choirs approximately lasts 25 minutes. Charles Gounod discovered Bach and Palestrina’s music when he traveled to Roma around 1840 it became his source of inspiration. Charles Gounod can be considered as one of the great members of Cecilian Movement for church music reform. Palestrina was the major model of this movement. Charles Gounod was a great believer, so he became a part of this movement. He composed “St. Cecilia Mass” in 1855 and it soon became famous. He also composed “Les 7 paroles de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ sur la Croix” after the manner of Palestrina. It is written in a pure classical style; the language is harmonic and expressive, there is counterpoint, and his romanticism is showed within “Lama Sabacthani” and “Sitio” for example. The whole work is intended to pray and meditate. This is completely different from Joseph Haydn’s “Die sieben letzen Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze” intended to be performed by choirs, solos, orchestras, but it is also different from “Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuze” by Heinrich Schütz in which the same extracts from the Gospels are used.
