Benjamin Godard

Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (18 August 1849 – 10 January 1895) was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer of Jewish extraction,[1] best known for his opera Jocelyn.

He died at the age of 45 in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) of tuberculosis and was buried in the family tomb in Taverny in the French department of Val-d'Oise.

His winning composition, a dramatic symphony entitled Le Tasso, remains one of his most admired works.

These include eight operas, among them: Jocelyn (the "Berceuse" from which remains Godard's best-known composition), performed in Paris in 1888; Dante, played at the Opéra-Comique two years later; and La Vivandière, left unfinished and completed by Paul Vidal (1863–1931).

Godard's fourth sonata for violin and piano contains a scherzo written in the unusual time signature of 54.