Edmond de Coussemaker
Encyclopedia
Charles Edmond Henri de Coussemaker, known as Edmond de Coussemaker, born on 19 April 1805 in Belle
, died on 10 January 1876 in Lille
, was a schooled jurist
. As a musicologist and ethnologist, he focused mainly on the heritage of French Flanders
. With Michiel de Swaen
and Maria Petyt, he was one of the most eminent defenders of Dutch culture
in France
.
into a family of jurists at the start of Napoleon’s Empire
, from a child Edmond de Coussemaker proved to be enormously skilled as a singer and pianist. "At the age of ten, he read every type of music in sight. He learned to play the violin and cello, but his preference made him particularly choose singing." ("À dix ans il lisait à première vue toute espèce de musique. Il apprit à jouer du violon et du violoncelle mais son goût le portrait particulièrement vers le chant.", François-Joseph Fétis
in Biographie Universelle des musiciens, Didot, 1860-1865). He continued his studies at the Dowaai
grammar school, where he studied violin with Joseph Baudouin and singing and harmony with Moreau, who was an organist at Saint Peter’s Church. In 1825, his father sent him to Paris
to study law. In those days La Dame Blanche by Boïeldieu
was a huge success there. Simultaneously, de Coussemaker started studying musical composition with Antonin Reicha and improved himself in the vocal arts with Felice Pellegrini, who performed Rossini’s operas in Paris at that time.
"Beauty, music, spirit: the Countess Merlin wears three crowns on her forehead of which only one would suffice to adorn the head of a woman." "Beauté, musique, esprit, Mme la Comtesse Merlin porte sur son front trois couronnes dont une seule suffirait à consacrer pour toujours une tête de femme." (Les belles Femmes de Paris et de la province, The pretty Women of Paris and the province, 1829). De Coussemaker visited the salon of the pretty creole as well as those of the countesses Méroni and Sparre
. The young Fleming met the whole of Paris there: Malibran, Musset, Liszt
, Balzac
, etc. His Romances and his Quadrilles amazed the Parisian aristocracy during their evenings. His style offered a peculiar synthesis: if La Captive, particularly close to Bellini
, is one of his most inspired pieces, others like Les Rossignols borrow much of their vocality from Rossini while Amour et Patrie resembles Méhul most, with a recitative close to Berlioz.
When the "king-citizen" Louis-Philippe came into power, the nobility who had always patronised artistic institutions were forced back and were gradually replaced in the theatre by the wealthy bourgeoisie. After having obtained his certificate in December 1830, de Coussemaker became a trainee in Dowaai, where in 1832 he took up the thread of his studies in counterpoint, with Victor Lefebvre. As he wished to elevate the level of religious music, in imitation of Alexandre-Étienne Choron
, initiator of the renewal of the mastership from 1807 on, de Coussemaker wrote a Mass as well as different motets a cappella
: Kyrie
, Sanctus, O Salutaris and Agnus dei.
Thanks to Luce-Varlet, artistic life was very intense in Douai. In the summer of 1832 Coussemaker set up a Société d’émulation musicale (Society for Musical Competition) in order to play his own pieces of music and those of other local composers with a large orchestra: Victor Lefebvre, Henri Brovellio, Charles Choulet and Amédée Thomassin. This occurred during the winter when concerts were organised by this society and from 1840 to 1843. As Chief Commissioner of the Société Philharmonique de Douai (Philharmonic Society of Douai) responsible for the recruitment of artists, he invited very prestigious people like the violin player Henri Vieuxtemps
or the oboe player Stanislas Verroust to perform. On 5 December 1832 his Romance for two voices was performed: an Air varié for oboe, Chant for two voices a cappella and an Air for soprano with accompaniment by an orchestra. He also left manuscripts such as an essay about musical composition and fugue and an essay about harmony, which have apparently both been lost.
Edmond de Coussemaker sang regularly in his region (Belle
, Aire-sur-la-Lys
, Kassel…), interpreting his own melodies or the fashionable airs lyriques. Even an opera was performed, Le Diamant perdu (The Lost Diamond), in 1835. He left the composition of another opera, Imogène, unfinished. In 1836, in his native town, he married Marie Ignard de la Mouillère, to whom he dedicated a whole series of romances during their period of engagement. If his output does not bear testimony to an exceptional talent, his works are nevertheless firmly constructed and reflect the taste of the Restoration
. He had a significant influence on production in the region, orientating it towards gothic
romanticism
in the so called troubadour style
. He became a judge at the District Court of Sint-Winoksbergen
in 1843, after which he was appointed to the Court of Hazebrouck
in 1845. Eventually, he became judge in Rijsel in 1858. In 1874, he was elected Mayor, maire, of Bourbourg
, his last residence.
De Coussemaker came into contact with the intellectuals of Europe, especially with the German cultural world; the brothers Grimm
and Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove for instance. Honoured in the Légion d'honneur
in April 1847, titleholder of the Ordre de Saint-Grégoire le Grand, member of more than 25 academic societies, he was a member of the Académie royale de Belgique (Royal Academy of Belgium), correspondent for the Institut de France
, and correspondent for the Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres. His impressive library included 1600 valuable books and numerous musical instruments, part of which came into the possession of the Royal Library of Belgium
in Brussels
(Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België).
on 13 September 1852 ordering a compilation of popular French poetry to be published (a publication which eventually never saw the daylight). Inspired by Barzaz Breiz: Chants populaires de la Bretagne, published by Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué from 1839 onwards, de Coussemaker - as a correspondent for the Committee of Language, History and the Arts of France - collected the songs of his region together. His renown in circles of folklorists today is exclusively based on his Chants populaires des Flamands de France (popular songs of the Flemings in France) published in Gent, three years later.
De Coussemaker founded the Comité flamand de France (Flemish Committee of France) in 1853, which was tasked with putting a brake on the disappearance of the West Flemish
dialect of the Dutch language
, as spoken in French Flanders. With the priest Jules Auguste Lemire, he tried to maintain Dutch education in Catholic schools, especially in Belle, but due to the secularisation of education made compulsory by law, the Catholic hierarchy lost its influence. This brought a fatal coup to the survival of the Flemish dialect.
Defending the idea of a constitutional monarchy, close to certain liberals such as Félicité de Lamennais, the Count of Montalembert, and the singer Béranger - who was an advocate of the House of Orléans and whose lyrics he had put into music - he remained profoundly attached to his country and rose to the position of General Counsellor of the Nord (nowadays the French region Nord-Pas de Calais
). Volume IV of his Scriptores de musica medii aevi was about to be issued when, as his daughter Lilia wrote the day he died in Lille
on 10 January 1876, exhausted by his affairs «our poor father finished with his weapons in his hands whilst serving the district».
Much of his archives and manuscripts disappeared after the town hall of Belle burned down in 1918.
’s Revue Musicale (musical revue). The first musicological work by de Coussemaker dates back to 1835. Even today his works remain a reference for matters relating to medieval musicology through their punctuality and precision: Mémoire sur Hucbald et ses traités de musique (1841), Histoire de I'harmonie au Moyen Âge (1852), Les harmonistes des XIIe-XIIIe (1864), Œuvres complètes du trouvère Adam de la Halle
(1872). His compilations Scriptorum de Musica Medii aevi, 1864–1876, continue those by Prince Abbot Martin Gerbert
. Among these historical writings, the Troubles religieux du XVIe dans la Flandre maritime (1560-1570), published in 1876, particularly merits being remembered.
He was one of the first to be devoted to research on medieval music
and his numerous publications focused on subjects such as the Gregorian chant
, the neumatic and measured notation
, medieval instruments, and the theory and polyphony he called harmony. What distinguished Coussemaker from Fétis is the wide culture of the latter that enabled him to synthesise huge quantities of information in order to elaborate on abstract theories. De Coussemaker’s approach is nonetheless more accurate, more scientific and more hypothetical.
From the original musical sources he had collected, he merely drew up descriptions based on attentive observation, resulting in him being heavily criticised by those who considered him more as a clever collector than as an historian. He proved the scientific value of facsimile
s of manuscripts, but also made his own transcriptions into modern notation. His Scriptorum de musica, a compilation of writings (most of them in Latin) of several theoreticians of ancient music, is his most important work. He also established several critical editions of ancient music, including liturgical dramas from the Middle Ages and works by Adam de la Halle
.
Bailleul, Nord
Bailleul is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is located in French Flanders near Lille.-Heraldry:-Media:...
, died on 10 January 1876 in Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, was a schooled jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
. As a musicologist and ethnologist, he focused mainly on the heritage of French Flanders
French Flanders
French Flanders is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France. The region today lies in the modern-day region of Nord-Pas de Calais, the department of Nord, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai and Dunkirk on the Belgian border.-Geography:French...
. With Michiel de Swaen
Michiel de Swaen
Michiel de Swaen was a surgeon and a rederijker from the Southern Netherlands.-Childhood, schooling and professional life:Michiel de Swaen studied at the college of the Jesuits in his native town, where he probably got a humanist education, acquired chiefly through theatre, as in those days...
and Maria Petyt, he was one of the most eminent defenders of Dutch culture
Dutch culture
thumb|right|250px|[[Netherlandish Proverbs|Dutch proverbs]], by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]]. Dutch culture may refer to:* used more narrowly, the Culture of the Netherlands* used more widely Culture of Dutch-speaking Europe, including...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Jurist and musician
Born in BelleBailleul, Nord
Bailleul is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is located in French Flanders near Lille.-Heraldry:-Media:...
into a family of jurists at the start of Napoleon’s Empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
, from a child Edmond de Coussemaker proved to be enormously skilled as a singer and pianist. "At the age of ten, he read every type of music in sight. He learned to play the violin and cello, but his preference made him particularly choose singing." ("À dix ans il lisait à première vue toute espèce de musique. Il apprit à jouer du violon et du violoncelle mais son goût le portrait particulièrement vers le chant.", François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis was a Belgian musicologist, composer, critic and teacher. He was one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century, and his enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today...
in Biographie Universelle des musiciens, Didot, 1860-1865). He continued his studies at the Dowaai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...
grammar school, where he studied violin with Joseph Baudouin and singing and harmony with Moreau, who was an organist at Saint Peter’s Church. In 1825, his father sent him to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study law. In those days La Dame Blanche by Boïeldieu
François-Adrien Boïeldieu
François-Adrien Boieldieu was a French composer, mainly of operas, often called "the French Mozart".-Biography:...
was a huge success there. Simultaneously, de Coussemaker started studying musical composition with Antonin Reicha and improved himself in the vocal arts with Felice Pellegrini, who performed Rossini’s operas in Paris at that time.
"Beauty, music, spirit: the Countess Merlin wears three crowns on her forehead of which only one would suffice to adorn the head of a woman." "Beauté, musique, esprit, Mme la Comtesse Merlin porte sur son front trois couronnes dont une seule suffirait à consacrer pour toujours une tête de femme." (Les belles Femmes de Paris et de la province, The pretty Women of Paris and the province, 1829). De Coussemaker visited the salon of the pretty creole as well as those of the countesses Méroni and Sparre
Sparre
Sparre is a Scandinavian surname - originally borne by a noble family - and can refer to:* Aage Jepsen Sparre, Danish priest* Christian Sparre, Norwegian politician* Desirée Sparre-Enger, Norwegian pop singer...
. The young Fleming met the whole of Paris there: Malibran, Musset, Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
, etc. His Romances and his Quadrilles amazed the Parisian aristocracy during their evenings. His style offered a peculiar synthesis: if La Captive, particularly close to Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, is one of his most inspired pieces, others like Les Rossignols borrow much of their vocality from Rossini while Amour et Patrie resembles Méhul most, with a recitative close to Berlioz.
When the "king-citizen" Louis-Philippe came into power, the nobility who had always patronised artistic institutions were forced back and were gradually replaced in the theatre by the wealthy bourgeoisie. After having obtained his certificate in December 1830, de Coussemaker became a trainee in Dowaai, where in 1832 he took up the thread of his studies in counterpoint, with Victor Lefebvre. As he wished to elevate the level of religious music, in imitation of Alexandre-Étienne Choron
Alexandre-Étienne Choron
Alexandre-Étienne Choron for a short time directed the Paris Opera. He played an essential role in France in making a clear distinction between sacred and secular music, and was one of the originators of French interest in musicology.- Biography :Choron studied mathematics at the collège de Juilly...
, initiator of the renewal of the mastership from 1807 on, de Coussemaker wrote a Mass as well as different motets a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
: Kyrie
Kyrie
Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek κύριε , vocative case of κύριος , meaning "Lord", is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, which is also called the Kýrie, eléison ....
, Sanctus, O Salutaris and Agnus dei.
Thanks to Luce-Varlet, artistic life was very intense in Douai. In the summer of 1832 Coussemaker set up a Société d’émulation musicale (Society for Musical Competition) in order to play his own pieces of music and those of other local composers with a large orchestra: Victor Lefebvre, Henri Brovellio, Charles Choulet and Amédée Thomassin. This occurred during the winter when concerts were organised by this society and from 1840 to 1843. As Chief Commissioner of the Société Philharmonique de Douai (Philharmonic Society of Douai) responsible for the recruitment of artists, he invited very prestigious people like the violin player Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century....
or the oboe player Stanislas Verroust to perform. On 5 December 1832 his Romance for two voices was performed: an Air varié for oboe, Chant for two voices a cappella and an Air for soprano with accompaniment by an orchestra. He also left manuscripts such as an essay about musical composition and fugue and an essay about harmony, which have apparently both been lost.
Edmond de Coussemaker sang regularly in his region (Belle
Bailleul, Nord
Bailleul is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is located in French Flanders near Lille.-Heraldry:-Media:...
, Aire-sur-la-Lys
Aire-sur-la-Lys
Aire-sur-la-Lys is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.-Geography:The commune is located 10 miles southeast of Saint-Omer, at the junction of the N43 with several departmental roads, by the banks of the Lys and the Laquette rivers.-History:Aire-sur-la-Lys is mentioned for...
, Kassel…), interpreting his own melodies or the fashionable airs lyriques. Even an opera was performed, Le Diamant perdu (The Lost Diamond), in 1835. He left the composition of another opera, Imogène, unfinished. In 1836, in his native town, he married Marie Ignard de la Mouillère, to whom he dedicated a whole series of romances during their period of engagement. If his output does not bear testimony to an exceptional talent, his works are nevertheless firmly constructed and reflect the taste of the Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
. He had a significant influence on production in the region, orientating it towards gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
in the so called troubadour style
Troubadour style
Taking its name from medieval troubadours, the Troubadour Style was a French artistic movement across multiple media aiming to regain the idealised atmosphere of the Middle Ages...
. He became a judge at the District Court of Sint-Winoksbergen
Bergues
Bergues is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is situated to the south of Dunkirk and from the Belgian border. Locally it is referred to as "the other Bruges in Flanders"...
in 1843, after which he was appointed to the Court of Hazebrouck
Hazebrouck
-Communications:The town enjoys excellent rail connections, with frequent daily services to Lille and Paris, some by High Speed Line. There is a small international airport, concentrating on business flights, at Merville-Calonne just 12 kilometre / 8 miles away...
in 1845. Eventually, he became judge in Rijsel in 1858. In 1874, he was elected Mayor, maire, of Bourbourg
Bourbourg
Bourbourg is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is situated in the maritime plain of northern France, at the heart of a triangle formed by Dunkirk, Calais, and Saint-Omer.-Heraldry:-Historical sites:...
, his last residence.
De Coussemaker came into contact with the intellectuals of Europe, especially with the German cultural world; the brothers Grimm
Grimm
-Media:* Brothers Grimm , the third album by Australian hip hop singer Drapht-Fiction:* The Brothers Grimm, German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors...
and Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove for instance. Honoured in the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
in April 1847, titleholder of the Ordre de Saint-Grégoire le Grand, member of more than 25 academic societies, he was a member of the Académie royale de Belgique (Royal Academy of Belgium), correspondent for the Institut de France
Institut de France
The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...
, and correspondent for the Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres. His impressive library included 1600 valuable books and numerous musical instruments, part of which came into the possession of the Royal Library of Belgium
Royal Library of Belgium
The Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most important cultural institutions in Belgium. The library has a history that goes back to the age of the Dukes of Burgundy...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
(Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België).
The Flemish Committee of France
Based on a report by Hippolyte Fortoul, Minister of Education and Religion, Napoleon III signed a decreeDecree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
on 13 September 1852 ordering a compilation of popular French poetry to be published (a publication which eventually never saw the daylight). Inspired by Barzaz Breiz: Chants populaires de la Bretagne, published by Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué from 1839 onwards, de Coussemaker - as a correspondent for the Committee of Language, History and the Arts of France - collected the songs of his region together. His renown in circles of folklorists today is exclusively based on his Chants populaires des Flamands de France (popular songs of the Flemings in France) published in Gent, three years later.
De Coussemaker founded the Comité flamand de France (Flemish Committee of France) in 1853, which was tasked with putting a brake on the disappearance of the West Flemish
West Flemish
West Flemish , , , Fransch vlaemsch in French Flemish) is a group of dialects or regional language related to Dutch spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France....
dialect of the Dutch language
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, as spoken in French Flanders. With the priest Jules Auguste Lemire, he tried to maintain Dutch education in Catholic schools, especially in Belle, but due to the secularisation of education made compulsory by law, the Catholic hierarchy lost its influence. This brought a fatal coup to the survival of the Flemish dialect.
Defending the idea of a constitutional monarchy, close to certain liberals such as Félicité de Lamennais, the Count of Montalembert, and the singer Béranger - who was an advocate of the House of Orléans and whose lyrics he had put into music - he remained profoundly attached to his country and rose to the position of General Counsellor of the Nord (nowadays the French region Nord-Pas de Calais
Nord-Pas de Calais
Nord-Pas de Calais , Nord for short, is one of the 27 regions of France. It consists of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, in the north and has a border with Belgium. Most of the region was once part of the Southern Netherlands, within the Low Countries, and gradually became part of France...
). Volume IV of his Scriptores de musica medii aevi was about to be issued when, as his daughter Lilia wrote the day he died in Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
on 10 January 1876, exhausted by his affairs «our poor father finished with his weapons in his hands whilst serving the district».
Much of his archives and manuscripts disappeared after the town hall of Belle burned down in 1918.
Musicological contribution
His fascination for the Dark Ages was first aroused while reading the Belgian musicologist François-Joseph FétisFrançois-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis was a Belgian musicologist, composer, critic and teacher. He was one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century, and his enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today...
’s Revue Musicale (musical revue). The first musicological work by de Coussemaker dates back to 1835. Even today his works remain a reference for matters relating to medieval musicology through their punctuality and precision: Mémoire sur Hucbald et ses traités de musique (1841), Histoire de I'harmonie au Moyen Âge (1852), Les harmonistes des XIIe-XIIIe (1864), Œuvres complètes du trouvère Adam de la Halle
Adam de la Halle
Adam de la Halle, also known as Adam le Bossu was a French-born trouvère, poet and musician, whose literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis in the style of the trouveres, polyphonic rondel and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony, and a musical play, "The Play of...
(1872). His compilations Scriptorum de Musica Medii aevi, 1864–1876, continue those by Prince Abbot Martin Gerbert
Martin Gerbert
Martin Gerbert , German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb am Neckar, Württemberg, on the 12th of August 1720....
. Among these historical writings, the Troubles religieux du XVIe dans la Flandre maritime (1560-1570), published in 1876, particularly merits being remembered.
He was one of the first to be devoted to research on medieval music
Medieval music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
and his numerous publications focused on subjects such as the Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
, the neumatic and measured notation
Neume
A neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The word is a Middle English corruption of the ultimately Ancient Greek word for breath ....
, medieval instruments, and the theory and polyphony he called harmony. What distinguished Coussemaker from Fétis is the wide culture of the latter that enabled him to synthesise huge quantities of information in order to elaborate on abstract theories. De Coussemaker’s approach is nonetheless more accurate, more scientific and more hypothetical.
From the original musical sources he had collected, he merely drew up descriptions based on attentive observation, resulting in him being heavily criticised by those who considered him more as a clever collector than as an historian. He proved the scientific value of facsimile
Facsimile
A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...
s of manuscripts, but also made his own transcriptions into modern notation. His Scriptorum de musica, a compilation of writings (most of them in Latin) of several theoreticians of ancient music, is his most important work. He also established several critical editions of ancient music, including liturgical dramas from the Middle Ages and works by Adam de la Halle
Adam de la Halle
Adam de la Halle, also known as Adam le Bossu was a French-born trouvère, poet and musician, whose literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis in the style of the trouveres, polyphonic rondel and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony, and a musical play, "The Play of...
.
Writings
- Hucbald moine de St. Armand et ses traités de musique (1839–1841)
- Histoire de l'harmonie au Moyen Age (1852)
- Chants populaires des Flamands de France (1856)
- Les harmonistes des XII et XIII siècles (1864)
- Œuvres complètes du trouvère Adam de la Halle (1872)
- Scriptores de musica medii aevi (4 delen) (1864–1876)
Recordings
- Edmond de Coussemaker, Romances et chansons. Maryse Collache, soprano, Damien Top, ténor, Eric Hénon, piano. Symphonic Productions SyPr 041 2005.
External links
- http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3A%28texts%29%20-contributor%3Agutenberg%20AND%20%28subject%3A%22Coussemaker%2C%20Edmond%20de%201805-1876%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Coussemaker%2C%20Edmond%20de%2C%201805-1876%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Edmond%20de%20Coussemaker%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Edmond%20de%20Coussemaker%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Edmond%20de%20Coussemaker%22%29Works by Edmond de Coussemaker] at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions) - Musical repertoire