Andrée Desautels (9 October 1923 – 23 February 2023) was a Canadian musician,

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

and music educator.

Early life and training

The daughter of and , she was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

on 9 October 1923. Desautels studied piano with Isabelle Delorme and studied at the École supérieure de musique d'Outremont. She went on to study at the

Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (, CMQM) is a music conservatory located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In addition to the Montreal region, the school takes in students from nearby cities, including Granby, Joliette, St-Jean ...

with Germaine Malépart, Isabelle Delorme and

Claude Champagne Claude Champagne (27 May 1891 – 21 December 1965) was a French Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, and violinist. Early life and education Born as Joseph-Arthur-Adonaï Claude Champagne in Montreal, Quebec, Champagne began piano and the ...

. Desautels also studied the history of art and literature at the

University of Montreal A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. At the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

, she studied music history with

Norbert Dufourcq Norbert Stéphane Jean-Marie Dufourcq (21 September 1904 – 19 December 1990) was a French organist, music educator, musicologist and musicographer. Biography Norbert Dufourcq was born in 1904 in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in the Loiret department ...

and aesthetics with and

Alexis Roland-Manuel Alexis Roland-Manuel (22 March 18911 November 1966) was a French composer and critic, remembered mainly for his criticism. Biography He was born Roland Alexis Manuel Lévy in Paris, to a family of Belgian and Jewish origins. He studied composi ...

. She also studied privately with

Andrée Vaurabourg Andrée Louise Vaurabourg-Honegger (8 September 1894 − 18 July 1980) was a French pianist and teacher. She was the wife of Swiss-French composer Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), whom she met at the Paris Conservatoire in 1916. Honegger married h ...

(composition and orchestration), with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

(analysis) and with

Maurice Martenot Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot (; October 14, 1898 – October 8, 1980) was a French cellist, a radio telegraphy, telegrapher during the first World War, and an inventor. Born in Paris, he is best known for his invention of the ondes Martenot, an ...

(

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , ) or ondes musicales () is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a lateral-vibrato Keyboard instrument, keyboard or by moving a ring tied to a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. D ...

). Three of her vocal works were performed at the

École Normale de Musique de Paris The École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot" (ENMP) is a leading conservatoire located in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The school was founded in 1919 by Auguste Mangeot and Alfred Cortot. The term ''école normale'' (English: no ...

in 1947.

Career

Desautels returned to Montreal in 1949 and taught music history and musicology at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal until she retired in 1988. She also taught music history at the

and the

École de musique Vincent-d'Indy The école de musique Vincent-d'Indy is a subsidized private music college situated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the Outremont, Quebec, Outremont district, that specializes in music education. The school was named after the French composer, Vin ...

from 1961 to 1964. She was a commentator for concerts at the (JMC) from 1949 to 1966 and was managing editor for the JMC's journal from 1951 to 1956. Desautels also was responsible for the programming at the JMC pavilion at

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

. She wrote and introduced a number of series on music for Radio Canada. Her students included Jacques-André Houle,

Richard Boulanger Richard Charles Boulanger (born November 10, 1956) is a composer, author, and electronic musician. He is a key figure in the development of the audio programming language Csound, and is associated with computer music pioneers Max Mathews and Barr ...

, Nicole Labelle and Liette Yergeau. Desautels contributed articles and reviews to various newspapers and periodicals; she also contributed to various publications including the ' and ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

''. Desautels wrote incidental music for the play ''La Fille du soleil'' by and for the Radio Canada performance of the play ''

Antigone ANTIGONE (Algorithms for coNTinuous / Integer Global Optimization of Nonlinear Equations), is a deterministic global optimization solver for general Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs (MINLP). History ANTIGONE is an evolution of GloMIQO, a global ...

'' by

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; ; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ...

. In 1951, she was elected to the . From 1967 to 1970, she was a member of the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

. She founded the Association des professeurs of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and served as its president from 1960 to 1968. In 1988, she received a medal from the

Quebec National Assembly The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Quebec (representing the King of Canada) and the Nat ...

. In 1995, she was named to the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

Personal life and death

Desautels died on 23 February 2023, at the age of 99.Andrée Desautels
. ''Services Commémoratifs Mont-Royal''. Retrieved 4 March 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desautels, Andree 1923 births 2023 deaths Canadian classical composers Canadian music educators Canadian musicologists Canadian women classical composers Members of the Order of Canada Université de Montréal alumni Academic staff of the Université de Montréal Canadian women music educators Canadian women musicologists Musicians from Montreal Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal alumni