BOURGAULT-DUCOUDRAY, LOUIS

born Feb. 2, 1840, Nantes, France died July 4, 1910, Vernouillet in full Louis-albert Bourgault-ducoudray French composer and musicologist who influenced his contemporaries by his researches on folk music. Bourgault-Ducoudray studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won the Prix de Rome (1862) and where he was professor of the history of music (18781908). He wrote operas, symphonic works, and chamber music, but his fame rests on his Trente mlodies populaires de Grce et d'Orient (1876; Thirty Popular Melodies from Greece and the Orient), Trente mlodies populaires de Basse Bretagne (1885; Thirty Popular Melodies from Lower Brittany), and Quatorze mlodies Celtiques (1909; Fourteen Celtic Melodies), which fostered a new approach to folk music in France by giving it in its original modal setting. He thus anticipated 20th-century music, being one of those who provided Claude Debussy with the evocative archaism that through him became an essential element in modern musical style.