Jacques Chailley (24 March 1910 – 21 January 1999) was a Frenchmusicologist and composer.[1]
Chailley’s mother was the pianist Céliny Chailley-Richez (1884–1973), his father thecellist Marcel Chailley (1881–1936).[1] Adolescent, he was a boarder at the Fontgombault Abbey (Indre) where he learned to play theorgan and learned about choir directing. At the age of 14, he composed a four-voiceDomine non sum dignus.
He received a classical and musical training of high quality, studyingharmony withNadia Boulanger,[1]counterpoint andfugue withClaude Delvincourt,[1]musicology withYvonne Rokseth who gave him insight intomedieval music. At theConservatoire de Paris, he followedMaurice Emmanuel's class of music history and studiedmusic composition withHenri Büsser (himself a disciple ofCharles Gounod). At the Sorbonne, he studied music history withAndré Pirro,[1] with whom he presented his first musicological work in 1935 (DES, "Diplôme d'Études Supérieures").[2] He also took classes ofconducting withPierre Monteux,Willem Mengelberg andBruno Walter in Amsterdam, while resident in the Descartes House (1935-1936).[1] There, he also studied musicology with Albert Smijers.[2]
Passionate aboutMedieval music[1] for which he devoted much of his musicological activity, he founded in 1934 the choirPsalette Notre-Dame in order to revive it. In the same way, he founded at the Sorbonne under the direction ofGustave Cohen, the theater group theThéophiliens.[2] Finally, he was actively involved in the founding of theGroupe de Théâtre antique de la Sorbonne (In particular with Jacques Veil andRoland Barthes).[3] In this university, he completed his two theses on music, within the framework of the curriculum ofMedieval French literature:L'École musicale de Saint-Martial de Limoges jusqu'à la fin du XIe as well asChansons de Gautier du Coinci.
It was from this period that his intense musicological production began with works devoted to Medieval music and musical theory and to the evolution of musical languages, to musical notation, as well as to several composers, includingJohann Sebastian Bach,Mozart,Schubert,Berlioz,Schumann,Wagner.[4] At the same time, he did not neglect the teaching and popularization works (music history, method of piano reading, guide for young pianists, etc.).[1]
Jacques Chailley was a member of a resistance movement gathered around theFrench Communist Party: theFront National des Musiciens, created in May 1941, during the Second World War, after the invasion of the USSR by the German armies. It was a specific resistance organization for music professionals, created byElsa Barraine,Roger Désormière,Louis Durey (all three close to the French Communist Party),Roland-Manuel (himself a Jew, former student ofVincent d'Indy at theSchola Cantorum), andClaude Delvincourt.[5]
From 1946 to 1961, he directed the choir "L'Alauda". In 1969, he was also appointed the second president of theConsociatio internationalis musicæ sacræ, created in 1963 byPope Paul VI. Jacques Chailley remained in this position until 1974.[6]
In 1952, following the defense of his PhD onL’école musicale de Saint Martial de Limoges and his election as professor at theSorbonne in the chair of History of music left vacant byPaul-Marie Masson, Jacques Chailley took over the Institute of Musicology of the University of Paris, which he transformed in 1969-1970 in the UER (Unité d'enseignement et de recherche, later UFR,Unité de formation et de recherche) of music and musicology of the newParis-Sorbonne University>. He directed this UER until 1973.[4] He directed the doctoral theses of many recognized musicologists (includingBarry S. Brook,Trần Văn Khê,Simha Arom, Amnon Shiloah, Mireille Helffer,Jacques Viret, Michel Hugo, Jean-Rémy Julien, Annie Labussière,Danièle Pistone...).[4] Between 1973 and 1975, he obtained the creation of the CAPES and theAgrégation in musical education and choral singing. He thus facilitated the recognition of musicology at the university as an autonomous discipline and enabled many musicians to find a more stable professional situation.[2] He was also Inspector General of Music at theMinistry of National Education and director of theSchola Cantorum in Paris from 1962 until c. 1982.
His erudition and eclecticism, but also his distinct character and marked opinions, made him one of the principal figures in the post-war French musical life. Always remained in the post-Debussy French tradition with a modal language close toRavel,Roussel andHonegger[1] and firmly opposed theatonality andserialism "avant-gardes" (very much in vogue in the post-war years).[7] He leaves a work of 129 opus numbers.
Jacques Chailley was Secretary-General (1937), then Assistant Director (1941) of the Conservatoire de Paris.[2] His role during the war has been subject of controverse.
Jean Gribenski,[8] who taught at the Sorbonne under the orders of Jacques Chailley, mentions in a chapter of the collective bookLa vie musicale sous Vichy,[9] that in collaboration withHenri Rabaud in 1940, he drew up a list of the Jewish students of the Conservatory of Paris:
The eviction of Jewish pupils takes place in two stages. The first stage starts at the beginning of October 1940. [...] The management of the conservatory (Rabaud? Chailley, of his own initiative?) carries out a meticulous survey among the pupils between 4 and 10 October. His results are recorded in a voluminous file, almost entirely by Jacques Chailley's hand, which includes, in particular, the individual declarations of the pupils and the carefully established lists of names.[10]
Jean Gribenski further specifies that the list drawn up by Rabaud and Chailley was not communicated to the Germans, and that the exclusion of Jewish students took place only two years later, under duress, while the Conservatoire was led byClaude Delvincourt.[11]
That a list was used for the exclusion of Jewish students from the Conservatory was challenged by contemporary Jewish witnesses during the symposium where Gribenski first presented the results of his research in 1999.[12] The controversy reappeared in 2011, after the Sorbonne decided to give Chailley's name to an amphitheater (polemic triggered by an article in the weeklyLe Canard enchaîné and furthered in a note inLe Nouvel Observateur.[13])
Michèle Alten[14] has since published an article based on an in-depth study of the archives,[15] which sheds light on the events of 1940. She writes:
Following remarks of the German authorities, astonished at the non-application of anti-Semitic measures to the pupils,[16] he [Rabaud] sent an internal note to the 60 teachers present on 4 October [1940] in the school, asking them to have their students complete a statement about their racial origins. No nominal synthesis was then performed. Only one booklet, signed by each teacher, attests that the declarations have been fulfilled.
It is to this inquiry that Jean Gribenski's article seems to refer. Alten further writes that Jewish students of the Conservatoire were excluded from participating in the final examinations in 1942, under pressure from the Vichy Government.
Jacques Chailley has published many outstanding works, both on Greek and medieval music, on thePassions, thechorales fororgan andThe Art of Fugue by J. S. Bach, theCarnaval by Schumann,Tristan by Wagner. Worth noting is his interest in the exegesis of the Masonic aspects ofThe Magic Flute by Mozart, theWinterreise by Schubert andParsifal by Wagner.
He was also the author of several books on harmony and its history, the question ofmodality, as well as an important history of multi-volume music and popular works. He also studied musicians of the Middle Ages such asAdam de la Halle,Guillaume de Machaut of whom he prepared the first published transcript of theMesse de Nostre Dame orGautier de Coincy.
Jacques Chailley's musicological work comprises 53 books and 429 diverse articles. Among his main works are:
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