François Lesure (23 May 1923 – 21 June 2001) was a French librarian and musicologist.
François Lesure
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Lesure, circa 1990
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| Born | 23 May 1923
Paris, France
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| Died | 21 June 2001(2001-06-21) (aged 78)
Paris, France
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François Lesure studied at the Sorbonne, the École nationale des chartes (graduated in 1950), the École pratique des hautes études (graduated in 1948) and the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1950, he became curator in the music department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which he directed from 1970 to 1988. Between 1964 and 1977, he was appointed professor of musicology at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He succeeded Solange Corbin to the chair of musicology at the École pratique des Hautes Études in 1973.
François Lesure organized major exhibitions at the Bibliothèque nationale and the Opéra de Paris (Mozart in 1956, Debussy in 1962, Berlioz in 1969, Deux siècles d'opéra français in 1972) and at the Villa MédicisinRome (Debussy et le symbolisme in 1984).
He is mainly remembered as a specialist in 16th-century music, music sociology, music bibliography and Debussy. He was president of the Société française de musicologie [fr] from 1970 to 1973 and from 1987 to 1990.[1]
Between 1953 and 1967 he worked at the Central Secretariat of the RISM, a global project for the identification of musical sources. He has also edited several volumes in the RISM collections. Still in the publishing field, he directed the series Le PupitreatHeugel, devoted to early music scores, and the series Domaine musical at Les Amateurs de Livres then at Klincksieck [fr]. He was also editor of Claude Debussy's "complete works". A volume of Festschriften was offered to him in 1988 upon his departure from the Bibliothèque Nationale, entitled Musiques, signes, images, which gathered contributions both international and from researchers or artists in various fields.
France
