Edmond de Coussemaker

Charles Edmond Henri de Coussemaker (19 April 1805 – 10 January 1876) was a French musicologist and ethnologist focusing mainly on the cultural heritage of French Flanders. His early publication of medieval music within the Scriptorum de musica medii aevi (1864–1876) was among the most important early music events predating its 20th-century revival. Biography Jurist and musician He was born in Belle, De Coussemaker founded the Flemish Committee of France in 1853, which was tasked with preserving the West Flemish dialect of the Dutch language, as spoken in French Flanders. With the priest Jules Auguste Lemire, he tried the education in Catholic schools. Defending the idea of a constitutional monarchy, he rose to the position of General Counsellor of the Nord (now the French region Nord-Pas-de-Calais). Volume IV of his Scriptores de musica medii aevi was about to be issued, but, as his daughter Lilia wrote the day he died in Lille on 10 January 1876, it was exhausted by his affairs. De Coussemaker died in Bourbourg. Most of his archives and manuscripts disappeared after the town hall of Belle burned down in 1918. Musicology His musical style was oriented towards gothic romanticism in