Léon Destroismaisons

Destroismaisons, Léon

Léon Destroismaisons. Organist, teacher, composer, b St-Anne-de-la-Pocatière (now La Pocatière), near Quebec City, 2 Mar 1890, d St-Pacôme, Que, 3 Feb 1980. While preparing for the priesthood he studied music with Father Joseph Bourque at the Collège Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. He also taught organ and harmony 1914-25 at the collège while continuing his own studies in organ and piano with Henri Gagnon. In 1925 on a provincial bursary he began four years' study in Paris with Maurice Sergent and Marcel Dupré (organ), Simone Plé (piano), Georges Caussade (harmony and counterpoint), Vincent d'Indy (composition), and Henri Potiron and Auguste Leguennant (Gregorian chant). He received a diploma from the Institut Grégorien, Paris, in 1929. He then returned to his post at the Collège Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière (teaching there until 1965), and in 1931 he also began teaching at Laval University. He assumed the presidency of the sacred music commission of the diocese of Ste-Anne and wrote a chronicle (to 1910) of the music at the Collège Ste-Anne. Between 1929 and 1962 he gave more than 30 concerts to inaugurate organs throughout Quebec and in New Brunswick. With Louis-Philippe Morneau he prepared Manuel de chants sacrés (Paris, Tournai, Rome 1940), a hymn and canticle collection intended mainly for use in colleges and seminaries. He composed songs and hymns, a cantata, and a work for organ based on the Graduation Song of the Collège Ste-Anne; the last was recorded by Sylvain Doyon (Interdisc S-100527. Among Canon Destroismaisons's pupils were Antoine Bouchard, Sylvain Doyon, Pierre Dussault, André Gagnon, Yvon Larrivée, Maurice Lebel and Clermont Pépin.