Carl de Nys

Carl de Nys (born March 26, 1917 in Eupen , † April 4, 1996 in Valprivas , Arrondissement Yssingeaux ) was a Belgian-French musicologist , music journalist , music editor and Catholic priest .

Life

In his hometown of Eupen in East Belgium , where one is influenced every step of the way in many streets of the 18th century, Carl de Nys grew up as the son of the magistrate of the same name and grandson of the former mayor of Trier Karl de Nys . His homeland had belonged to different ruling countries for centuries, this probably led him to the forgotten European composers from Spain to Bohemia. We owe him the Eurovision melody from the Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier , which he rediscovered during his research.

After attending the Collège Patronné in Eupen and graduating from the Jesuit College in neighboring Verviers , he studied philosophy at the University of Namur from 1935 and theology at the seminary in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges from 1937 , as well as linguistics at the University of Nancy . He was ordained priest in St. Dié on September 11, 1941 by Bishop Émile Blanchet , later rector of the Catholic University of Paris . From 1942 de Nys taught literature and philology in Épinal for several years . In 1944 he worked for the intelligence service of the Allied High Command ( SHAEF ) with the consent of his bishop .

Working for the music

The essays, writings and translations he wrote between 1944 and 1952, to which he felt encouraged after meeting the Swiss pianist and composer Edwin Fischer , were still published under the pseudonym Charles-Marie de Boncourt. With the consent of the church, he was able to dedicate his work exclusively to music from 1952 and settled in Paris.

As a passionate researcher, he rummaged through Europe for lost manuscripts by forgotten composers or for neglected works by Johann Sebastian Bach , Joseph Haydn and Michael Haydn , as well as Mozart . Through numerous essays, he deepened his knowledge of the secular and religious music of the Salzburg child prodigy. He was the editor of several Mozart works for the music publisher Doblinger (Vienna).

In 1958 De Nys joined the recording studio "Center d'Enregistrement des Champs-Elysées" of the sound engineer André Charlin , where he worked as a musicological advisor on the recordings of countless unknown works, many for the record label Harmonia Mundi, which he co-founded, and for the French record label ERATO (1954 –2001). He was also responsible for the Musica Rara series for the Düsseldorf label Koch-Schwann. This work brought the recordings made by him as a unit manager numerous record awards. The longstanding collaboration with Helmut Müller-Brühl and his Cologne Chamber Orchestra testifies to the efforts of the musicians to achieve optimal recording quality .

From the mid-1960s, musicology was recognized in French universities. Although the institution not belonging, was de Nys from the then University of Lyon-St.Étienne be the first lecturer in the newly established course Musicologie used.

His Belgian homeland was still close to his heart, so from 1970 he was in charge of the “Musique en Wallonie” recording series, which was initiated by the Liège notary Albert Jeghers and continues to this day. In this project he conducted numerous recordings by Walloon composers of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries with the organist and conductor Hubert Schoonbroodt from his hometown . De Nys was the artistic director of the Festival de Wallonie for a long time . For a period of over 40 years he reported annually, for the music magazine Diapason , among others , on performances at the Salzburg Festival , the Bregenz Festival and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence .

His particular love for baroque music did not prevent him from turning to contemporary composers, such as the work of Joachim Havard de la Montagne , in whose work he found all the expressive qualities of post-romantic music. With this in mind, in 1956 he encouraged André Jolivet to compose his oratorio La Vérité de Jeanne .

In the Auvergne , Carl de Nys devoted himself to the “Center culturel musical” by Valprivas , which he founded in 1960 with the pianist Hélène Salomé. Here he directed the world's first recordings of works by George Onslow , the Clermont-Ferrand- born English composer whom he described as the first French romantic. In Valprivas, the place where the former cultural center is located was named "Place Carl de Nys".

He passed on his knowledge in lectures to specialist audiences around the world, as well as in programs by German broadcasters such as Saarländischer Rundfunk , as a producer of his own series for the Belgian radio station RTBF and at other French and Belgian radio and television companies.

Publications

• Countless articles in music journals and encyclopedias (including Grove ).
• More than 800 companion pieces for record sleeves
• Co-author of various books
• 1957 Sinfonia sacra I
• 1960 La discothèque idéale , 470 pp. (Éditions Universitaires, Paris)
• 1980 La Cantate , ISBN 2-13-036482-9
• 1982 La musique réligieuse de Mozart , ISBN 2-13-037261-9

Web links

• Gregor Brand: (in the Eifel newspaper from April 24, 2019) Carl de Nys, the musicologist from Eupen
• Carl de Nys at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Grenz-Echo : Conversation with Carl de Nys, edition of September 27, 1995, pp. 12-13
2. ↑ CV Carl de Nys on de site svalander.se (English)
3. ↑ Description and address of the Center Culturel de Valprivas ( Memento of the original of January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Curriculum vitae of Carl de Nys, on the Musica et Memoria website