Auguste Joseph-Marie François Le Guennant (10 January 1881 – 17 May 1972) was a French organist, church musician and composer. He was, after positions as organist and head of the chapel in Paris and Nantes, the director and teacher at the Gregorian Institute of Paris, as a specialist of

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...

Biography

Born in 1881 in Auray (

Morbihan Morbihan ( , ; br, Mor-Bihan ) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastl ...

), Auguste Le Guennant was the son of Auguste Marie Le Guennant and his wife Valentine Joséphine Françoise le Duff. Le Guennant studied at the

Schola Cantorum de Paris The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera. History La Schola was founded ...

– the organ with

Alexandre Guilmant Félix-Alexandre Guilmant (; 12 March 1837 – 29 March 1911) was a French organist and composer. He was the organist of La Trinité from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantor ...

and composition with

Vincent d'Indy Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the P ...

. He held for some time the position of organist at the grand organ of

Notre-Dame de Clignancourt Notre-Dame de Clignancourt ( Our Lady of Clignancourt) is a Roman Catholic church located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Completed in 1863, the church takes its name from Clignancourt, a small village in the commune of Montmartre that was a ...

, and left Paris in 1905 to become head of the chapel at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port in

Les Sables-d'Olonne Les Sables-d'Olonne (; French meaning: "The Sands of Olonne"; Poitevin: ''Lés Sablles d'Oloune'') is a seaside town in Western France, on the Atlantic Ocean. A subprefecture of the department of Vendée, Pays de la Loire, it has the administ ...

, and from 1908 at the Basilica of Saint-Nicolas in Nantes. He founded the mixed group A Capella in this city, in collaboration with A. Mahot. The Mutual Edition of the Schola Cantorum published his ''Adagietto'' for organ, and an ''O Salutaris'' for four mixed voices. Biton published an accompanying book on Gregorian chant. In 1925, Le Guennant arrived at the Gregorian Institute of Paris as director and teacher of Gregorian chant, succeeding Dom Joseph Gajard of the

Solesmes Abbey Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Gu� ...

. After World War II, he organized many Gregorian sessions, not only in France but also in Fátima, and even Rio de Janeiro. Still teaching at the Gregorian Institute in Paris, Le Guennant considerably boosted the teaching of Gregorian chant by creating centres of study in several countries. When

Maurice Duruflé Maurice Gustave Duruflé (; 11 January 1902 – 16 June 1986) was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher. Life and career Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure in 1902. He became a chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School fr ...

thought about basing his Requiem on Gregorian chant, he asked Le Guennant for advice, and gratefully acknowledged his understanding. In 1960, Duruflé dedicated a composition to Le Guennant, his '' Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens'' which were also based on chant. In 1953, Le Guennant was awarded the

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

of the

Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music ( it, Pontificio istituto di musica sacra; la, Pontificium institutum musicae sacrae) is an institution of higher education of the Roman Catholic Church specifically dedicated to the study of church music ...

in Rome.

Writings

* 1947: ''Notes pour servir à la direction d’une Schola Grégorienne''. * 1948: ''Précis de rythmique grégorienne''. * 1988: ''Vade Mecum Paroissial de l'Accompagnateur Grégorien'' (posthumous)

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

*
"Auguste de le Guennant"
''Biographical Dictionary of the Organ'', organ-biography.info * , by

; Notre-Dame de Paris,

Olivier Latry Olivier Jean-Claude Latry (born 22 February 1962) is a French organist, improviser, and composer. He is professor of organ in the Conservatoire de Paris. He became interested in the organ after listening to recordings by Pierre Cochereau. His ...

"The Technique of Gregorian Chironomy"
dedicated to Le Guennant, media.musicasacra.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Guennant, Auguste 20th-century French composers French classical organists 1881 births People from Auray 1972 deaths Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni 20th-century organists 20th-century French male musicians French male classical organists