Louis Cyr (Musicologist) | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Article

Louis Cyr (Musicologist)

Article by Jean-Pascal Vachon

Published Online June 28, 2007

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Louis Cyr. Musicologist, teacher, b Saint John, NB, 29 Oct 1936; B MUS (St-Louis, Edmundston) 1954, ARCT 1957, BA (St-Louis, Edmundston) 1957, L PH (Montreal) 1961, L TH (Montreal) 1965, MA musicology (Frankfurt) 1980.

Cyr, Louis

Louis Cyr. Musicologist, teacher, b Saint John, NB, 29 Oct 1936; B MUS (St-Louis, Edmundston) 1954, ARCT 1957, BA (St-Louis, Edmundston) 1957, L PH (Montreal) 1961, L TH (Montreal) 1965, MA musicology (Frankfurt) 1980. Ordained a Jesuit priest in 1964, he left for Europe to study (1965-7) ethnomusicology at the Sorbonne U, and theory at the École de musique César-Franck; he also took part 1966 in various composition seminars in Salzburg and Darmstadt. He taught 1969-70 at the School of philosophy and theology in Frankfurt. Back in Canada, he taught (1975-84) at UQAM, in addition to administrative duties as head of the committee for the introduction of a music program, and director of the music teachers' association.

He has worked in various domains, including liturgical music (lecturer on the occasion of international meetings, and consultant, in particular for the choice of music during the visit by Pope John Paul II in Montreal, in 1984); the restoration of organs (at the St-François-Xavier Mission in Kahnawake in 1977 and at the Gesù church in Montreal 1986-91); music for player piano (he organized concerts in Montreal (1982) and London (1985), is a founding member of the Pianola Institute in London, and edited (1987, 1989) the first two issues of its Journal). However, he is best known as a specialist of Igor Stravinsky's music, on which he has lectured extensively in Quebec, the USA and Europe. He is the author of many articles as well as the French translation of Stravinsky (Paris 1983) by Eric Walter White.

Writings

Louis Cyr, 'Pour un printemps nouveau du Sacre,' CUMR, 2 (1981)

' Le Sacre du printemps: petite histoire d'une grande partition,' Stravinsky. Études et témoignages, ed François Lesure (Paris 1982)

'Le Manuscrit autographe de l' Oiseau de feu (1910) - un envol printanier de bon augure,' Igor Stravinsky, L'Oiseau de feu, Fac-similé du manuscrit, Saint-Pétersbourg, 1909-1910 (Geneva 1985)

'Writing The Rite right,' Confronting Stravinsky, Man, Musician and Modernist, ed Jann Pasler (Berkeley, Cal 1986)

Also several articles on liturgical music in Église qui chante, Vie liturgique and Bulletin national de liturgie