Norbert Stéphane Jean-Marie Dufourcq (21 September 1904 – 19 December 1990) was a French organist, music educator, musicologist and musicographer.
Biography
Norbert Dufourcq was born in 1904 in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in the Loiret department of France. His parents were the historian Albert Dufourcq who worked as a professor at the University of Bordeaux and Madeleine Dufourcq, née Prot. His maternal grandfather, Paul Prot, owned Parfums Lubin. He was the third of six children. He was named after his paternal grandfather, Bernard-Norbert Dufourcq.
Trained at the École des chartes and holder of a doctorate of literature, and an archivist/palaeographer, Norbert Dufourcq nonetheless devoted himself to music.
An amateur organist (pupil of André Marchal), he served as titular organist of the organ of the Saint-Merri church in Paris from 1923 to his death. The Clicquot/Cavaillé-Collpipe organ was restored by the Gonzalez [fr] company in a neo-classical aesthetic [fr] under the direction of its owner between 1946 and 1947. Many stops were added to the instrument.
In 1946, he participated in a collective work entitled La Musique des origines à nos jours.[3] The collaborative work had him partner with musicologists such as Solange Corbin de Mangoux.[4]
An organ enthusiast from a young age, he was co-founder with Bérenger de Miramon Fitz-James of the Association des amis de l’orgue[5] from 1926 to 1927 and served as its Secretary-General. He also established the magazine L’Orgue, where he often wrote expressing his ideas on the historicity of French classical organs.
His archives of the Commission des orgues are kept in the archives of the city of Paris, Papiers Norbert Dufourcq, 1933–1984, Cotes: D70Z 1 à 10, référence de l’instrument de recherche: VII.2.3.
Personal life
On the day before his 22nd birthday in 1926, he married the historian Odette Latron (1904-1994).
He died on 19 December 1990. A simple funeral service, in accordance with his will, was held in the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice in his memory. He was buried at the Montmartre Cemetery afterwards.
1935: Esquisse d'une histoire de l'orgue en France du XIIIe au XVIIIe siècles, étude technique et archéologique de l'instrument, thèse pour le doctorat ès-lettres.
1938: La musique d'orgue française au XXe.,[7] Paris.
1942: Les Clicquot : facteurs d'orgues du Roy, contribution à l'histoire d'une famille d'artisans d'origine champenoise sous l'Ancien Régime,[8] Floury, Paris.
1946: La musique des origines à nos jours, under the dir. of Norbert Dufourcq, Larousse.
1948: Jean-Sébastien Bach, le maître de l'orgue,[9] Floury, Paris.
