Lavignac, (Alexandre Jean) Albert

Lavignac, (Alexandre Jean) Albert, eminent French musicologist and pedagogue; b. Paris, Jan. 21, 1846; d. there, May 28, 1916. He studied at the Paris Cons, with Marmontel (piano), Bazin and Benoist (harmony), and A. Thomas (composition), winning first prize for solfège in 1857, for piano in 1861, for harmony and accompaniment in 1863, and for counterpoint and fugue in 1864; he won second prize for organ in 1865. He was appointed asst. prof, of solfège (1871), prof, of solfege (1875), and then prof, of harmony (1891) there. His Cours complet théorique et pratique de dictée musicale (6 vols., Paris and Brussels, 1882) attracted considerable attention and led to the introduction of musical dictation as a regular subject in all the important European conservatories; it was followed by Dictées musicales (additional exercises) in 1900. His magnum opus was the famous Encyclopédie de la musique et Dictionnaire du Conservatoire (Paris, 3 vols., 1920-31), which he ed. from 1913 until his death. Other writings include École de la pédale du piano (Paris, 1889), La Musique et les musiciens (Paris, 1895; 8^th ed., 1910; entirely rev., 1950; Eng. ed. by H. Krehbiel, 1899), Le Voyage artistique à Bayreuth (Paris, 1897; rev. ed. by H. Busser, 1951; Eng. ed. as The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner, 1898; second Eng. ed., 1904), Les Gattes du Conservatoire (Paris, 1900), L’Éducation musicale (Paris, 1902; 4^th ed., 1908; Eng. ed., 1903), Notions scolaires de musique (Paris and Brussels, 1905), and Théorie complète des principes fondamentaux de la musique moderne (Paris and Brussels, 1909).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire