Study on the Relationship between Musicology and Composer: The Influence of Musicologist Louis Laloy on Claude Debussy’s Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut

Louis Laloy (1874-1944) is one of early 20th century French musicologist; he is also a music critic, sinologist, composer and music educator. Not only is he the first person to get doctoral degree in musicology from Paris-Sorbonne University, but also he is the disciple of French composer Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931). In 1914, Laloy met the famous perfumer Jacques Rouche (1862-1957) who appreciated and appointed him to been General Secretary of the Paris Opera until 1941. During this period he promotes the French music and was closed to Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) and Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) in believing that they will become the pioneers in 20th century music’s history.

However, Laloy was forgotten after World War II, especially the relationship between him and Debussy has so far rarely been explored. In view of this, based on first-hand data found in Laloy family’s archives, I will present Laloy’s life firstly and then describe his friendship with Debussy. Taking this as a starting point, I will explore how Debussy got his creative inspiration for his piano work Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut from Laloy’s Far East music knowledge and constructed his own musical aesthetics, became unique debussysme.