The Petite Symphonie in B-flat major is a four-movement work by Charles Gounod, first performed in 1885. It is scored for a wind ensemble of nine players.
Gounod had composed two symphonies for full orchestra in the 1850s but had since then generally concentrated on opera, songs, and religious music.[1] At the request of a Parisian wind ensemble, the Société de musique de chambre pour instruments à vent, led by the flautist Paul Taffanel, he wrote a nonet for flute and pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons. The work was first given at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 30 April 1885.[2] The score was not published until 1904.[1]
The work, which plays for about twenty minutes, is in four movements:[2]
