Louis Aguettant

Louis Aguettant (3 April 1871 – 10 March 1931) was a French musicologist, writer and teacher of French literature.

Biography Bachelor of letters in 1887 and of sciences in 1888, Bachelor of Arts in 1891, agrégé of the Sorbonne in 1895, musicologist, Louis Aguettant was professor of French literature at the Catholic Faculty of Lyon, a chair he kept until his death.

Music, poetry and literature He was a professor-lecturer of European culture, an outstanding artist and pianist as witnessed by Ignacy Paderewski who took an interest in him and considered that he had the stuff of "a talent of the first order."

Passionate about music he met Gabriel Fauré, Georges Martin Witkowski, maintained correspondence with Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, gave musicology and poetry lessons at the Conservatoire de Lyon, met Paul Claudel, Francis Jammes and Paul Valéry, and taught courses on Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire for 33 years.

In 1921, he married Marcelle Mouly who gave him three children: Jeanne, Louis and Robert.

Attentive to the literature of his time, he corresponded with many influential authors of his time: Jean Cocteau, Paul Claudel, Gabriel Fauré, André Gide, Louis Mercier, Max Jacob, Henry de Montherlant, Charles Péguy, Raymond Radiguet, Albert Thibaudet, Paul Valéry and many others.

Among his works many were published: Les Dialogues de Paul Valéry, La Poésie de Paul Claudel, Un fils de Virgile : Louis Mercier, Jean-Marc Bernard, Marcel Ormoy, Émile Mâle, Le Génie de Gabriel Fauré, André Caplet, translation by Abt Vogler de Browning, etc.

The publication of his book La musique de piano, with a preface by Henri Rambaud was a powerful discovery, "a master book" for Bernard Gavoty, "A breviary" for Alfred Cortot ).

("A spirit of the greatest rarity, for very rare are those who develop like him on the confines of music, letters and the abstract")

Works 1901: Victor Hugo paysagiste 1920: Ernest Psichari 1923: Les Dialogues de Paul Valéry 1925: Le Génie de Gabriel Fauré, 1934: Lettres de jeunesse 1954: La Musique de piano : des origines à Ravel 1957: Lecture de Baudelaire