Charles Gounod’s Meditation on the Prelude in C Major from Vol. 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach is certainly one of the most well-known classical melodies. Gounod got to know Bach’s music through Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn’s sister. He improvised the melody on the Prelude in 1852 in the home of his future father-in-law, the composer Pierre Zimmermann, who subsequently transcribed it. A few days later the piece was performed in a house concert in an arrangement for violin, piano...