Guillaume Franc

Guillaume Franc (c. 1505–1571) was a French musician and composer active in Geneva and Lausanne in the mid-16th century. He is regarded as instrumental in the development of both the Genevan Psalter and the . Some of the melodies are still used in hymns in the 21st century. Life Franc was born in Rouen around 1505, the son of Pierre, whose profession is not known. He was for some time in the service of Georges d’Armagnac, the future cardinal, as ‘cantor and servant’. He married the noble Catherine de Solages, a former nun of the Abbey of Millau who had converted to the Reformation. The family, with several children, moved to Geneva, probably to find refuge there, like many French Protestants at the time. Geneva Franc’s life in Geneva is recorded in the registers of the Council of Two Hundred. The first entry, dated 17 June 1541, is about his obtaining permission to teach music (“tenyr eschole de musique”), in the same year that the Council decided to promote congregational singing in worship. Franc began instructing children to sing the psalms. On 2 May 1542, Franc was commissioned by the Council to teach children to sing the Psalmen Davids, with an annual salary of 24 florins. He