Marcel Labey

Marcel Labey
Born(1875-08-06)6 August 1875
Died25 November 1968(1968-11-25) (aged 93)
EducationSchola Cantorum de Paris
Occupations
  • Conductor
  • composer
SpouseCharlotte Sohy

Marcel Labey (6 August 1875, Vésinet – 25 November 1968, Nancy) was a French conductor and composer.

Life

He was born to a family of magistrates and studied law in Paris (gaining his doctorate in 1898) before turning to music. He learned piano under Élie-Miriam Delaborde and Louis Breitner, and harmony under René Lenormand. He met Vincent d'Indy who made him follow his courses at the Schola Cantorum. The First World War interrupted his musical studies and career - he was wounded twice and mentioned in dispatches four times.

At the Schola Cantorum, he taught piano, composed piano sonatas, and (until the death of Vincent d'Indy) was one of its under-directors, and later became the co-founder and director of the Ecole César Franck (1935–1954).: 22  He was also secretary of France's Société nationale de musique.

His wife Charlotte Sohy (1887–1955), herself a student of d'Indy, composed a symphony, melodies, four string quartets and a lyric drama in 3 acts called L'Esclave Couronnée, which adapted a novel by Selma Lagerlöf and was put on at Mulhouse on 6 May 1947.

Works

He rediscovered the "esprit franckiste" in his compositions.

Opera

Bérangère, liturgical drama in 3 acts (1911–1913; Le Havre, 12 April 1929)

Orchestral music

Chamber and instrumental music

References

  1. ↑ "Marcel Labey (1875-1968)". BnF. Retrieved 22 March 2026.
  2. ↑ Hill, Edward Burlingame (1924). Modern french music. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. p. 349. Retrieved 22 March 2026.
  3. ↑ Benoit-Otis, Marie-Hélène; Quesney, Cécile (2016). "A Nazi Pilgrimage to Vienna? The French Delegation at the 1941 "Mozart Week of the German Reich"". The Musical Quarterly. 99 (1): 6–59. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdw010.