Antoine Marcel Lemoine

Antoine Marcel Lemoine (3 November 1763, in Paris – 10 April 1817, in Paris) was the founder of the music publishing establishment in Paris and a virtuoso and skillful performer on the violin and viola. His youngest son, Henry Lemoine, took over the publishing business a year before his father’s death. His descendants have continued the company, later known as Éditions Henry Lemoine. Biography Antoine Lemoine’s father was a dramatic artist, who gave him his first elementary lessons on the guitar and violin, but beyond this rudimentary instruction Lemoine was self-taught. His father took the family on a wandering, restless life. When Antoine Lemoine was sixteen and a half years old, he married. For the next few years he followed the example of his parents, wandering with his wife and earning a living by violin and guitar playing. In 1790 another publisher, Imbault of Paris, published several of Lemoine’s compositions and theoretical works, including a method for the guitar. This was printed in several editions. Three years later Lemoine devoted himself entirely to music publishing but, after the French Revolution, he placed his business under capable management. He officiated as con