Expert Isidore Norbert Henry, *12 May 1863 Bordeaux, †18 August 1952 Tourrettes-sur-Loup (Alpes-Maritimes), French musicologist, conductor, and pioneer in the publication of early music.
In 1881, he arrived in Paris, where he studied at the Niedermeyer School of Music (École Niedermeyer de Paris), among others under G. Lefèvre; he also studied under C. Franck and E. Gigout. From 1902 to 1905, he was a professor at the Niedermeyer School and at the École des Hautes Études Sociales; he then worked as a librarian: from 1905 to 1909 at the Sainte-Geneviève Library, and from 1909 at the Paris Conservatory Library, where he served as chief librarian from 1920 to 1933. In 1933, he moved to Croisic, and later lived in Vence and Tourrettes. Expert was also active as an organizer and conductor of choirs and vocal ensembles (from 1902, the Chanteurs de la Renaissance; from 1924, the Chanterie de la Renaissance). He was also a co-organizer of the Société d’Études Musicales et de Concerts Historiques.
In 1910–11, he gave lectures on the history of music at the Opéra Comique and collaborated with A. Lavignac’s Encyclopédie de la musique and Histoire du théâtre lyrique en France, contributing sections on French Renaissance music to these publications.
Expert’s historical contribution lies in his editorial work on 16th-century French music. He continued this work throughout his life, despite financial difficulties. Thanks to the publishing series he initiated, it became possible to undertake research on early French music, made available in modern notation and with critical editions. In addition to his editions of early music, Expert launched a series of theoretical treatises and thematic catalogs of early music works, as well as an edition of early sources. He was unable to realize his other publishing plans, which included facsimile editions of sources of French early music and a series of commentaries and treatises.
Expert was one of the first to use the term “Renaissance” in the title of his 1894 collection in reference to 15th- and 16th-century music. In 1952, the Association des Amis d’Henry Expert et de la Musique Française Ancienne was founded in Paris to continue his work; in the series «Maîtres Anciens de la Musique Française», it published revised and improved versions of some of his transcriptions.
Les maîtres musiciens de la Renaissance française, 23 vols., Paris 1894–1908
Psautier Huguenot du XVIe siècle, Paris 1902
Chants de France et d’Italie, n.d. Paris (ca. 1904, a collection of secular songs from the 17th and 18th centuries)
Répertoire classique de musique religieuse et spirituelle, 12 vols., Paris 1913–14 (a collection of works by French and Italian composers of the 17th and 18th centuries)
Collection d’ordre lyrique Expert-Pillart, Paris 1922 (works by French composers of the 19th century)
„La fleur des musiciens” de Pierre Ronsard, 7 vols., Paris 1923
Les monuments de la musique française au temps de la Renaissance, 10 vols., Paris 1924–29, vol. 11 ed. J. Chailley, M. Honegger, Paris 1958
Anthologie de musique sacrée des maîtres anciens, Paris 1926
Florilège du concert vocal de la Renaissance, 8 vols., Paris 1928–29
„Messe de la bataille” de Janequin, Paris 1948
Extraits des maîtres musiciens de la Renaissance française, n.d. Paris (parts of 150 works, published for practical use)
Musique instrumentale de la Renaissance française, n.d. Paris
Les théoriciens de la musique au temps de la Renaissance, vol. 1, Paris 1900 (works of M. de Menehou)
Bibliographie thématique, 2 vol., Paris 1900 (catalogue of the publications of P. Attaingnant)
