Guy de Lioncourt (1 December 1885 in

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,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 i ...

under Léon de Saint-Réquier (harmony),

Amédée Gastoué Amédée Henri Gustave Noël Gastoué (19 March 1873 – 1 June 1943) was a French musicologist and composer. Biography A Kapellmeister at the , professor of gregorian chant at the Schola Cantorum of Paris, Gastoué was particularly interested ...

(Gregorian chant), André Roussel (counterpoint),

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 Par ...

(composition), Charles Pineau (organ), F. Mondain (woodwind) and Louis de Serres (singing). On 2 July 1912, at Boffres (Ardèche), he married Claire de Pampelonne, niece of

. They had five children: Colette, Jeanne, Vincent (died in childhood), Thérèse and Germaine (future wife of composer

Jacques Berthier Jacques Berthier (27 June 1923 – 27 June 1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at Taizé Community, Taizé. Biography Berthier was born in Auxerre, Burgundy (region), Burgundy; both of ...

(1923-1994) - among their children was

Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt (born 1947 in Auxerre) is a French musician and, with Philippe Beaussant, co-founder of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. He directed Ensemble Vocal de Neuilly, from 1969 to 1976. He is president of Musiqu ...

). In 1918, he won the Grand Prix Lasserre with the ''opéra féerique'' ''La Belle au bois dormant'' (1912-1915). After having been the secretary general of 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 i ...

, he became its professor of

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

in 1914. Guy de Lioncourt played a major role in the foundation of the

École César Franck The École César-Franck (César Franck School, named after César Franck) was a music school founded in Paris in January 1935 by Guy de Lioncourt, Louis de Serres, Pierre de Bréville and Marcel Labey. It was produced by a split from the Schola Ca ...

, acting as its under director, then director in 1942, all the while teaching the composition class. His counterpoint (1914–1931) and composition (1932–1934) classes at the Schola Cantorum were formative for a multitude of famous students, as did his classes in

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

(1935–1955) and of "déclamation lyrique" (1942–1954) at the École César Franck. On the death of

, he occupied the post of sous-directeur and taught composition.

His work

His work is almost entirely religious in inspiration, though he has also written symphonic and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

pieces. His ''motets à 4 voix'', his ''21 Cantiques pour les principales circonstances de la vie liturgique'', his ''Élévations Liturgiques'', and his ''Dix préludes à l'introït'' place him in the first rank of church musicians. Besides ''la Belle au Bois Dormant'' which has already been mentioned, he wrote the conte lyrique ''Hyalis, le petit faune aux yeux bleus, pour soli chœurs et orchestre'', a ''Jean de la Lune''. Three works are especially notable: *''le Mystère d'Emmanuel'', written at Liège in 1924 (liturgical drama in 2 parts), *''les Dix Lépreux'', *''le Mystère de l'Alleluia'' (finding a balance between

plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. ...

and

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

, with Latin and French texts). In 1935, he founded the

with

Louis de Serres Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...

, becoming its director in 1942. He gathered his memoirs in the work ''Un Témoignage sur la musique et sur la vie au XXe siecle''. He also completed the fourth and last volume of d'Indy's ''Cours de composition''.

External links

Musica et Memoria
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lioncourt, Guy De 1885 births 1961 deaths Musicians from Caen 20th-century classical composers French classical composers French male classical composers Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni 20th-century French composers 20th-century French male musicians