MUSICOLOGY

Louis Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray

Continuing the tradition of Villoteau, the first French musician who studied ad loc Greek music, a century later (by the end of 18th century) Louis Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray (1840-1910), composer, researcher and educator, contributed a great deal for French musicians to learn about Greek music, especially through harmonization, transcription and arrangement of Greek folk tunes that he published in Paris. The studies of Bourgault-Ducoudray on folk music (he also studied the folk music of Bretagne) and on modal music of older and contemporary civilizations influenced the new trends in French music introducing the idea of broadening the means of expression of western music.

The contact of the French musician with Greece did not stop with the end of his mission in our country. In Paris he was related with many Greeks, among them Marios Varvoglis (see the tribute on Varvoglis in Musicology, issue 2/1985).

The text Recollections of a Musical Expedition in Greece and the Orient, published in issue 7-8 of Musicology, is the first one that Bourgault-Ducoudray published after he returned in Paris from Greece (1st publication: 1876, 2nd: 1878). Next texts of his were Etudes sur la musique ecclésiastique grecque: mission musicale en Grèce et en Orient (Paris 1877) and Conférence sur la modalité dans la musique grecque (Paris 1878).