Roger Delage

Roger Delage was a French musicologist and conductor born on December 4, 1922, in Vierzon. He was the leading authority on composer Emmanuel Chabrier and studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Maurice Vieux and Norbert Dufourcq. During World War II, he played in the Orchestre des Cadets du Conservatoire. In 1954, he joined the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg as a violist and founded the Collegium Musicum, Strasbourg in 1959. Delage lectured on music history and chamber music in Strasbourg and Nancy from 1972 to 1990. His extensive musicological work included the radio series Ce sacré Chabrier in 1963 and a definitive biography in 1999. He edited major works such as Une éducation manquée and collaborated with Jean-Michel Nectoux on the 1893 version of Gabriel Fauré's “Requiem”. Delage died on February 8, 2001, in Strasbourg. His editions of Chabrier's folk song arrangements and the piano pieces Petits morceaux faciles were published posthumously.