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 in the Loiret department of France. His parents were the historian who worked as a professor at the University of Bordeaux and Madeleine Dufourcq née Prot. He was the third of six children.

Trained at the École des chartes and holder of a doctorate es literature, and an archivist/palaeographer, Norbert Dufourcq nonetheless devoted himself to music. An amateur organist (pupil of André Marchal), he is the holder of the organ of the Saint-Merri church in Paris from 1923 to his death. The Clicquot/Cavaillé-Coll pipe organ was restored by the  [fr] company in a  [fr] under the direction of its owner between 1946 and 1947. Many organ stops were added to the instrument.

A professor of music history at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1941 to 1975 and musicology at the École normale de musique de Paris between 1958 and 1963, he is also the author of numerous articles and books on music in general, the organ and harpsichord in particular; Moreover, he founded the journal Recherches sur la musique française classique,^[1] continued by Marcelle Benoît.^[2]

In 1946, he participated to a collective work entitled La Musique des origines à nos jours^[3] for the writing of which he surrounded himself with musicologists such as Solange Corbin de Mangoux.^[4]

A very early organ enthusiast, he was co-founder with of the Association des Amis de l’orgue^[5] in 1926–27. He also established the magazine L’Orgue in which he expressed his ideas on the historicity of French classical organs.

He is also responsible for the restitution and publication in modern edition of classical French organ music such as Livres d’Orgue by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Gilles Jullien, Nicolas Lebègue, Louis-Antoine Dornel, Boëly, Michel Corrette, as well as the manuscript by Mathieu Lanes, for example; as well as a controversial rebuild of the organ of Auch Cathedral in which a large amount of historical 17th-century pipework was destroyed, and electrification of the tracker action.

Norbert Dufourcq has been president of the French asscociation of musicologists (1955-1958).^[6]

His archives of the Commission des orgues are kept in the archives of the city of Paris, Papiers Norbert Dufourcq, 1933-1984, Cotes: D70Z 1 à 10, référence de l’instrument de recherche: VII.2.3.

Personal life[]

On his 22nd birthday in 1926, he married the historian (1904-1994).

Dufourcq had five children, one of which was the diplomat ; who was the father of the businessman, Nicolas Dufourcq).

Norbert Dufourcq passed away on the 19th of December in 1990. A simple funeral service, in accordance with his will, was held in the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice in his memory.

Bibliography[]

• 1933: La musique française, Éditions Larousse, Paris.
• 1935: Esquisse d'une histoire de l'orgue en France du XIIIe au XVIIIe siècles, étude technique et archéologique de l'instrument, thèse pour le doctorat ès-lettres.
• 1938: La musique d'orgue française au XXe.,^[7] Paris.
• 1942: Les Clicquot : facteurs d'orgues du Roy, contribution à l'histoire d'une famille d'artisans d'origine champenoise sous l'Ancien Régime,^[8] Floury, Paris.
• 1946: La musique des origines à nos jours, under the dir. of Norbert Dufourcq, Larousse.
• 1948: Jean-Sébastien Bach, le maître de l'orgue,^[9] Floury, Paris.
• 1948: L'Orgue, PUF, Paris, (Que sais-je ?).
• 1949: Le clavecin, PUF, (Que sais-je ?).
• 1969: Marcelle Benoît, Norbert Dufourcq and Bernard Gagnepain, Les grandes dates de l'histoire de la musique^[10] 3rd ed., 1995.

See also[]

• French organ school

References[]

Sources[]

• "Norbert Dufourcq (1904-1990)". L'Orgue. Cahiers et mémoires issues 49-50 (1993): 292 pages.

External links[]

• Musica et Memoria. Biographical notes and photos. Extended biography.
• Orgues de France Le grand orgue de St-Merry par Pierre Astor.