LANDOWSKA, WANDA

born July 5, 1879, Warsaw, Pol., Russian Empire died Aug. 16, 1959, Lakeville, Conn., U.S. in full Wanda Louise Landowska Polish-born harpsichordist who initiated the revival of the harpsichord in the 20th century. Landowska studied composition in Berlin in 1896, and in 1900 she went to Paris, where, influenced by her husband, Henry Lew, an authority on folklore, she researched old music and keyboard instruments. She taught at the Schola Cantorum, first played the harpsichord in public in 1903, and in 1909 published, with her husband, Musique ancienne, a study of 17th- and 18th-century music. She remained until the beginning of World War II the principal exponent of 17th- and 18th-century harpsichord music, particularly that of J.S. Bach and Franois Couperin, on whose works she wrote several studies. In 1925 she founded a school for the study of old music at Saint-Leu-La-Fort, near Paris, and in 1941 settled in the United States. Among the modern works she inspired were the harpsichord concerti of Manuel de Falla and Francis Poulenc. Her theories of technique are the basis of contemporary harpsichord playing.