Claude Delvincourt

Claude Delvincourt
(b Paris, 12 Jan 1888; d Orbetello, Tuscany, 5 April 1954). French administrator and composer.

In addition to studying law, he was a pupil at the Paris Conservatoire of Leon Boëllmann, Büsser and Caussade, and later of Widor. He was sent as a recruit to the front at Argonne in 1914, working with a group of sound therapists. On 31 December 1915 he was severely wounded by shell shot, and his convalescence lasted until 1920. He was appointed director of the Versailles Conservatory in 1931, and in 1941, during the German occupation, he took over the direction of the Paris Conservatoire. He proved well-suited to this position, running the institution with great efficiency, and establishing a close rapport with his students. His most important decisions were the founding of the Orchestre des Cadets and of a chorus (so avoiding the evacuation of his pupils to Germany), and his invitation to Messiaen, despite much comment, to teach the philosophy of music, the origin of the analysis class that was to attract young composers from all over the world.

Delvincourt's music is marked by a Cartesian control which does not preclude the depth of feeling of his L'offrande à Çiva, the humour of his Croquembouches or the love of youth displayed in his Heures juvéniles. After Debussy and Ravel, he was one of the most ardent of French composers in trying to recapture the spirit of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as in the Danceries. He died in a car accident while on his way to Rome to hear the première of his String Quartet.