Clercx-Lejeune, Suzanne

(b Houdeng-Aimeries, 7 June 1910; d Liège, 25 Sept 1985). Belgian musicologist. After studying in Italy

and Germany, where her teachers included Besseler at Heidelberg, she took the doctorate at Liège in

1939 with a dissertation on the development of instrumental music in the Netherlands in the 18th

century. From 1940 to 1949 she worked as a librarian at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. In 1945

she became junior lecturer at Liège University, where she was successively appointed lecturer, reader

and in 1966 professor until 1980. For several years she was a committee member of the Société Belge

de Musicologie and a member of the editorial staff of the Revue belge de musicologie. She also served

on the editorial committee of Acta musicologica (1957–71) and was chairman of Les colloques de

Wégimont, the annual international congress for ethnomusicology that she founded in collaboration with

Paul Collaer in 1954. In 1957 she founded, in collaboration with Jean Lejeune and Robert Wangermée,

the Festival de Liège. She wrote extensively on 18th-century Belgian music, European music of the 16th

century and the music of Liège in the 14th and 15th centuries. On these subjects she produced some

excellent historical monographs and surveys, as well as detailed studies based on scientific and

aesthetic musical analysis and archival research, all of which reflect her wide reading in music history.

Writings

Essai sur l’évolution de la musique instrumentale dans les Pays-Bas au XVIIIe siècle (diss., U. of Liège,

1939)

‘Les clavecinistes belges et leurs emprunts à l’art de François Couperin et de Jean Philippe Rameau’,

ReM, nos.192–4 (1939), 11–22

Henri-Jacques de Croes, compositeur et maître de musique du Prince Charles de Lorraine (Brussels,

1940)

‘Les Boutmy: une dynastie de musiciens belges au XVIIIe siècle’, Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire

de l’art, xiii (1943), 33–52

Introduction to Josse Boutmy: Werken voor klavecimbel, MMBel, v (1943)

Grétry, 1741–1813 (Brussels, 1944/R)

‘La musique instrumentale du XIIIe au XVIIe siècle (1610)’, La musique des origines à nos jours, ed. N.

Dufourcq (Paris, 1946, 3/1959), 158–66

Introduction to Dieudonné Raick and Charles-Joseph van Helmont: Werken voor orgel en/of voor

clavecimbel, MMBel, vi (1948)

Le Baroque et la musique (Brussels, 1948/R)

Pierre van Maldere: virtuose et maître des concerts de Charles de Lorraine, 1729–1768 (Brussels, 1948)

‘Le dix-septième et le dix-huitième siècle’, La musique en Belgique du Moyen Age à nos jours, ed. E.

Closson and C. van den Borren (Brussels, 1950), 145–233

‘Introduction à l’histoire de la musique en Belgique’, RBM, v (1951), 9–22, 114–31

‘D’une ardoise aux partitions du XVIe siècle’, Mélanges d’histoire et d’esthétique musicales offerts à Paul-

Marie Masson, i (Paris, 1955), 157–70

with R.H. Hoppin: ‘Notes biographiques sur quelques musiciens français du XIVe siècle’, L’Ars Nova:

Wégimont II 1955, 63–92

‘Les accidents sous-entendus et la transcription en notation moderne’, L’Ars Nova: Wégimont II 1955,

167–95

‘Aux origines du fauxbourdon’, RdM, xxxix–xl (1957), 151–65

‘Jean de Macque et l’évolution du madrigalisme à la fin du XVIe siècle’, Festschrift Joseph Schmidt-Görg

zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. D. Weise (Bonn, 1957), 66–80

‘Le terme Baroque: sa signification, son application à la musique’, Le ‘Baroque’ musical: Wégimont [IV]

1957, 17–34

Johannes Ciconia: un musicien liégeois et son temps (Brussels, 1960) [incl. archival documentation,

thematic catalogue and complete edn]

‘Charles van den Borren (1874–1966)’, Liber memorialis: l’Université de Liège de 1936 à 1966, ed. R.

Demoulin, ii (Liège, 1967), 231–53

‘Redde Caesari … à propos de la musique dite “flamande”’, Vie wallonne, xliv (1970), 208–28

‘Fortuna Josquini: a proposito di un ritratto di Josquin des Prez’, NRMI, vi (1972), 315–57

‘Ancora su Johannes Ciconia (1335–ca.1411)’, NRMI, xi (1977), 573–90

Bibliography

AMe (R. Lenaerts)

Annuaire du corps enseignant et du personnel scientifique (Liège, 1967), 95 only

‘Hommage à Suzanne Clercx-Lejeune’, RBM, xlii (1988) [memorial issue; incl. extensive list of writings],

7–17

B-Aac, dossier C 284209

Godelieve Spiessens