COUSSEMAKER, CHARLES-EDMOND-HENRI de. - Musicologist, b. at Beilleul on 19 Apr. 1805, d. at Lilla on 10 Jan. 1876.
He studied law in Parigi and served as a judge in the courts of Cambrai, Dunkerque, Lilla, etc., while at the same time devoting himself to music and composing masses and motets. His most significant work was in musicology, especially in the field of medieval music: he published a large number of treatises in the collection Scriptores de musica media aevi (4 vols., 1864–76), thereby continuing the undertaking of M. Gerbert. Besides numerous monographs, often of considerable length, such as the Histoire de l'harmonie au moyen âge (Parigi 1852) and the Art harmonique au XIIIe et XIIIe siècle (Lilla 1865), etc., he printed the works of the Trouvère Adam de la Halle (ibid. 1872), the Trattato di Musica of J. Tinctoris (ibid. 1875), Mémoires sur Huchald (Douai 1841), etc. His work, although imperfect owing to still inadequate palaeographical studies and the limited scientific basis of his philological training, constitutes a valuable contribution to the historiography of medieval music.