GOUNOD, who was engaged to Anna ZIMMERMAN, daughter of the Inspector General of Studies at the Imperial Conservatoire in Paris, often went to dinner at his fiancée's house. He regularly waited in the family salon, improvising at the piano. One day his future father-in-law, a renowned pianist, heard young Charles improvising on J.S. Bach's first prelude in C major, a melody he found ravishing. After GOUNOD had repeated it a second time, ZIMMERMAN hastened to write it down, and a few days later he...