Élisabeth Gallat-Morin

Gallat-Morin, Élisabeth

Élisabeth (Anne) Gallat-Morin (b Gallat). Musicologist, harpsichordist, b Paris 9 Feb 1932, naturalized Canadian 1979; B MUS (Montreal) 1970, MA musicology (Montreal) 1977, PH D musicology (Montreal) 1986. Élisabeth Gallat-Morin began studying piano at eight with the Sisters of St Anne in Vancouver, and continued her studies in Trinidad and then in Montreal under Mireille Chabot. From 1948 to 1950, she completed her schooling at the Sacré-Coeur Convent in Montreal. In 1950, she returned to France where she became part of the managing staff at the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces. She made Montreal her permanent home in 1955. Beginning in 1965, she attended the University of Montreal, where some of her teachers were Clément Morin, Jean Papineau-Couture, André Prévost, Massimo Rossi, Dujka Smoje, and Gilles Manny. Along with her sons, she took part in CAMMAC summer activities, where Gallat-Morin developed a strong interest in organ and harpsichord. While taking her master's degree, she took harpsichord lessons with Mireille Lagacé, Denis Regnaud, and Réjean Poirier. In the meantime, she participated in summer courses taught by Kenneth Gilbert in Belgium and France. After completing her master's degree, she received further training in harpsichord from John Grew. Particularly attracted to French Baroque music, she investigated musical practice in New France. In 1978, she discovered a manuscript which has been known ever since under the name Livre d'orgue de Montréal; it was the subject of her doctoral thesis, which was published in 1988. In 1993, she published a biography of the owner of the manuscript, Jean Girard. Gallat-Morin then turned her attention to musical activity in lay society. She co-authored a book in 2003 on musical life under the French Regime, which won a Prix Opus, and collaborated on recordings on that repertoire.

Writings

Élisabeth Gallat-Morin, Essai de stylistique comparée, 2 vols (Montreal 1979)

- and Bouchard, Antoine. Témoins de la vie musicale en Nouvelle-France, exhibition catalogue (Quebec City 1981)

'Jean Girard: premier musicien professionnel de Montréal?' Cahiers de l'ARMuQ, 3, Jun 1984

- and Gilbert, Kenneth. Livre d'orgue de Montréal, critical ed, 3 vols (Ostiguy 1985, 1987, 1988)

Un manuscrit de musique française classique - Étude critique et historique - Le Livre d'orgue de Montréal (Montreal, Paris 1988)

'Quelle réjouissance! Un manuscrit de cantiques de Noël à Montréal au XVIII^e siècle,' Journal de musique ancienne, vol 11, Winter 1989-90

Jean Girard, musicien en Nouvelle-France, Bourges 1696 - Montréal 1765 (Quebec City 1993)

"Un nouvelle découverte à Montréal dans la bibliothèque musicale de Jean Girard: des oeuvres vocales rares de Le Bègue, Bacilly et DuMont," Canadian University Music Review, Vol 17, no. 2, 1997

"Une bibliothèque de musique vocale retrouvée. Un petit-neveu de Delalande en Nouvelle-France," L'Art vocale en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, XXIX, 1998

- and Pinson, Jean-Pierre. La Vie musicale en Nouvelle-France (Quebec 2003)