Nadia Boulanger Media Resources Centre

THE Jean Martinon LEGACY

Jean Martinon (Lyon, 1910 – Paris, 1976) was a composer and conductor who studied composition with Vincent d’Indy and Albert Roussel and conducting with Charles Munch and Roger Désormière.

He conducted the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux from 1951 to 1957, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra from 1960 to 1966, the Chicago Symphony from 1963 to 1968, the Orchestre National de l’ORTF from 1968 to 1973 and the Residence Orchestra of The Hague from 1974 to 1976. He specialised in French music and conducted works by Berlioz, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Dukas, Roussel, Schmitt, Ravel, Ibert, Honegger, Poulenc, Jolivet, Landowski, Dutilleux and Bancquart.

The Jean Martinon collection was donated by his family in 1982. The collection consists of about 1,500 scores and a collection of orchestral parts which is kept in the orchestra library. The full scores are extremely interesting for conductors as they are annotated in blue, red and black pencil. The notes added in black pencil correspond to the analysis of the work. The notes in red and blue are reminders to help the conductor during performance.

THE Mondon LEGACY

In 1981 Dr H. Mondon donated to the conservatory the music library of the late Emile Veyron-Lacroix. This musician, who was born on 3^rd June 1820 and died in Clermont-Ferrand in 1857, was a harp teacher and also cathedral organist in that city. He had preserved the music belonging to Claude Veyron-Lacroix (Clermont-Ferrand 1789 –  1850), who was also a music teacher and who had fought in all the Napoleonic campaigns. It is thought there was also an Antoine Veyron-Lacroix in the family, who was born in Lyon in about 1765 and was perhaps a colleague of Lesueur.

In addition to opera scores – notably « Dardanus » by Rameau (edited by la Veuve Boivin in 1739), « Alceste » by Gluck (edited by Deslauriers in 1776) and « Barbe-bleue » by Grétry (engraved by Huguet, a musician from the Comédie italienne in 1789) – the collection comprises different albums of studies, solos and sonatas for harp. This is the essence of French harp repertoire at the end of the 18^th and the beginning of the nineteenth century.

THE Henry de Rouville LEGACY

Henry de Rouville, born 1955, died 1988, was a singer who studied with the English alto Alfred Deller. He is the author of the book on English music in the famous « Que sais-je? » series (« La Musique anglaise », published 1986). His family donated his library in 1992, and almost all of it has been added to the loan stock. It consists mainly of repertoire for alto or counter-tenor.

THE Xavier Darasse LEGACY

Xavier Darasse (1934-1992), was an organist and composer who taught at the Lyon CNSMD from 1985 onwards and was appointed director of the Paris CNSMD in 1985. After his death the Xavier Darasse collection was donated to several different institutions, including the Toulouse Conservatory, the Paris CNSMD and the Lyon CNSMD.

The collection consists of letters, manuscripts and printed texts and microfilms. It includes a considerable number of scores signed by the composer with a personal dedication and annotated by Xavier Darasse. Particularly noteworthy are « Quasi una toccata » by Gilbert Amy, « Anarchipel » by André Boucourechliev, « Diagramme » by Charles Chaynes, « Pièce n° 1 pour orgue » by Jean-Pierre Guézec, « Musique de jour » by Betsy Jolas, « Improvisation ajoutée » by Mauricio Kagel, « Volumina » by György Ligeti, « Etude aux objets » by Pierre Schaeffer and « The Rite of Spring » by Igor Stravinsky in the transcription for organ by Bernard Haas.

THE Béthenod LEGACY

This collection, donated in 1995 by one of the beneficiaries to Mr Berthenod’s will, is of no great size but contains some very interesting pieces edited between 1780 and 1800: several instrumental methods (piano, flute, bassoon, etc.) and a number of operas by Piccini and Sacchini. The collection also contains a rarity, namely the 1744, 1748 and 1756 editions of « Pièces de clavecin » (Pieces for Harpsichord) by Jacques Duphly, engraved by Mademoiselle Vendôme and presented in one magnificent volume bound in calfskin with fleuron, hot-iron gilding and embossed gilt cover pages.

THE Jane Bathori LEGACY

The Jane Bathori collection was donated to the Lyon CNSMD by the Music Department of the French National Library. Jane Bathori (1877-1970), a French mezzo-soprano and wife of the Belgian tenor Emile Engel, gave many performances of the French composers of her day, which explains how signed copies with personal dedications of melodies by composers such as Daniel-Lesur, Maxime Jacob, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Henri Sauguet and Jean Wiener have come to be in our possession today.

THE Collection OF pEriodiCALS

Current issues of more than a hundred music periodicals are available in the periodicals room. Back numbers from previous months are kept in stock and can be consulted on request. Music periodicals from the Nadia Boulanger collection (for example the ‘Revue musicale’ from 1920 and the ‘Revue de musicologie’ from 1926 onwards) are also available for consultation.

OTHER Collections AVAILABLE FOR consultation

In addition to these collections the reading room naturally has many other monumental editions available: Corpus mensurabilis musicae, Berg, Debussy, Schönberg, Schumann, etc., dictionaries of music (Grove’s, 2001 edition), thematic catalogues, bibliographies, etc.

It is also possible to listen to sound recordings in the reading room (more than 4,500 compact discs are available), access CD Rom databases such as the RILM (international repertoire of music literature from 1969 to 2001), the RIPM (international repertoire of music periodicals of the 19^th century), and log on to other libraries: Ircam, CDMC (Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine), BNF (French National Library), Centre for Renaissance Studies in Tours, Biblioteca dell’Universita degli studii di Bologna, etc.