Autrice: Camille Patru
Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi (1877–1944)

Young Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, sometimes called “Calvo,” was educated in Paris and became very interested in geology and mineralogy at the École Monge. Later, he grew fonder of philosophy thanks to his teacher André Lalande from the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly. However, Calvo discovered his true passion at the age of sixteen at the Concerts Lamoureux. He therefore became a music student. Among others, he learned piano with Eugène Claveau and harmony with Xavier Leroux. It is thanks to the novelist Gustave Binet-Valmer that Calvocoressi became a musical correspondent for the Belgian weekly Art Moderne, owned by Octave Maus. Calvo was especially interested in Russian music after he started a correspondence with the composer Mily Balakirev in 1905 and discovered the work of Modest Mussorgsky. He even worked as an advisor to Russian impresario Diaghilev between 1907 and 1910. This was the time of the launch of Russian music in Western Europe, hence the importance of Calvo’s work. For this, he received the Order of Saint Anna from the Czarist government and was later appointed to the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Additionally, he played a key role in promoting French impressionist composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, with whom he maintained close relations through correspondence for thirty years. Along with Ravel and Ricardo Viñes, Calvocoressi founded the Apaches Circle, a group of musicians, writers, and artists who met weekly in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.
A prolific writer and critic, Calvocoressi worked as a music correspondent for various periodicals—including the Weekly Critical Review or La nouvelle revue française—and collaborated with leading musicians and composers. He also authored thirteen books and countless articles on music history and theory, further establishing his reputation as a respected authority in the field. To spread musical knowledge even further, Calvo gave lectures at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales in Paris, as well as in Glasgow. He also had his own column entitled “Music in the Foreign Press” in The Musical Times, in which he “compiled that always interesting, often valuable survey of the foreign musical press, which must in itself have entailed an incredible amount of spade-work.” This is an interesting fact to note because it sheds light on his will to help music circulate despite the language barrier.
Indeed, he stood as an international figure for music criticism at the time. Born to a Greek family in Marseille, Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi seemed destined to be a polyglot. In addition to French and Greek, he also learned English through his governesses, as well as Italian, German, Russian, and Hungarian. Nearly all aspects of his life reflect this multicultural background. To borrow the words of his friend and fellow music critic Gerald Abraham, Calvo’s career can be divided “into two distinct periods: the French (1902-14) and the English (1921-44).” The reason for this chasm is to be found in the First World War and Calvo’s Greek nationality, which prevented him from serving in the French army. He therefore left France to settle in Chelsea, London, and worked for the British Intelligence Service as a cryptographer. This also places him as a designated mediator between France and England at the time.
As a music critic, Calvo’s love for language and international background naturally led him to translation. From librettos to sheet music by way of songs, his translations are incredibly varied.
According to Gerald Abraham, his work as a translator “was doubly remarkable: for the number of languages he could translate from—at least a dozen, possibly more—and for the number he could translate into.” He only dabbled in literary translation because of his fondness for Edgar Allan Poe’s work, as he translated his unfinished serial novel The Journal of Julius Rodman as well as two tales in Le Mercure de France in 1910 and 1913.
When it comes to music translation, Calvocoressi published an article entitled “The Practice of Song-Translation” in Music & Letters (1921) . In this piece, he states that it is important that a scholar who translates musical texts has extensive knowledge of music. Moreover, a translator cannot take liberties with music as in literary translation. They need to leave “the music exactly as the composer wrote it” (314). Or, if they have to take some, “he must submit the matter to the most rigorous test” (315). Thus, Calvo seems to advocate for translations to be as close to the original as possible. However, this article also focuses on the link between languages and the differences that can arise when one translates from and to various languages. For instance,
“translations from German into English (or from English into German) are generally a far simpler matter than translations from or into other languages. There exist between the two so many analogies or coincidences that the translator’s task is appreciably simplified” (315).
Moreover, even if Calvocoressi is best known for his role in the diffusion of Russian music in Western Europe, this article shows his concern about British music:
“And at the present time, when it is so important to make British music known abroad, we shall do well to bear in mind that, unless good translations are made available, there is little hope of the vocal repertory making satisfactory headway on the Continent.” (322)
Bibliography
Abraham, Gerald. “Calvocoressi, Michel-Dimitri.” Grove Music Online, 2001. Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04622.
—. “M. D. Calvocoressi (1877-1944)”. The Musical Times, 85 (1213), March 1944, pp. 83–85, https://www.jstor.org/stable/921571.
Basil Maine. “Personalities among Musical Critics. II. M. -D. Calvocoressi.” The Musical Times, vol. 67, no. 997, 1926, pp. 216–217, https://doi.org/10.2307/912506.
Calvocoressi, M-D. ‘Le journal de Julius Rodman’ (Poe, Edgar, 1840), Chapters 1-3, in Le Mercure de France, April 16, 1913, pp. 770-805, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k201721w/f108.item.
—. ‘Le journal de Julius Rodman’ (Poe, Edgar, 1840), Chapters 4-6, in Le Mercure de France, May 1, 1913, pp. 98-132, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2017228/f140.item.
—. ‘L’Élan’ (Matinée sur le Wissahiccon) (Poe, Edgar, 1844), in Le Mercure de France, February 16, 1910, pp. 788-793, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2016719/f122.image.
—. ‘Perte d’haleine – Conte qui n’est ni dans ni hors de « Blackwood ‘» (Poe, Edgar, 1835), in Le Mercure de France, February 16, 1910, pp. 793-811, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2016719/f127.image.
—. “The Practice of Song-Translation.” Music & Letters, vol. 2, no. 4, 1921, pp. 314–322. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/726587. Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
Goubault, Christian. La critique musicale dans la presse française de 1870 à 1914. Genève, Paris : Editions Slatkine, 1984.
Jacobs, Arthur. “Calvocoressi, Michel-Dimitri (opera).” (December 1, 1992) Grove Music Online, 2002. Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O004935.
Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. “Calvocoressi, Michel‐Dimitri.” In The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (5th Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Pasler, Jann. “Stravinsky and the Apaches.” The Musical Times, 123 (1672), June 1982, pp. 403–407. https://www.jstor.org/stable/964115.
Please note that you can also find an extensive manuscript collection of Calvocoressi’s correspondence in the archival collections of the University of Maryland
(https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/4/resources/286).
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Bénédicte Coste (7 janvier 2025). Notice biographique: Michel Calvocoressi. Melliflux décadent. Consulté le 17 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/1316q