Benjamin Godard (1849 - 1895) was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer of Jewish extraction. A prolific composer, his list of works includes eight operas, five symphonies, two piano concertos, two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs.

Godard was once regarded as one of the most promising French composers of the second half of the nineteenth century. He was opposed to the music of Richard Wagner and highly critical of Wagner's antisemitism. Godard's musical style was more in tune with those of Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.

Godard's Berceuse, an aria for tenor from his 1888 opera Jocelyn (Opus 100), is probably his best known work. In French, this aria is called Oh! ne t'éveille pas encore (Oh! Do Not Wake Up Yet); and in English it is called Angels Guard Thee. It has been arranged for numerous combinations of instruments and voices.

Godard's Au Matin (In the Morning), Opus 83, is a delightful piece for solo piano composed in 1884. Its modern-sounding introduction could easily be part of a musical theater-song from the late twentieth-century.