Wotquenne (-Plattel), Alfred (Camille)
Wotquenne (-Plattel), Alfred (Camille)
Wotquenne (-Plattel), Alfred (Camille), Belgian musicologist; b. Lobbes, Jan. 25, 1867; d. An-tibes, France, Sept. 25, 1939. He studied at the Royal Cons, in Brussels with Brassin (piano), Mailly (organ; premier prix, 1888), and Dupont and Gevaert (theory); from 1894 to 1896 he was deputy secretary and librarian and from 1896 to 1918 secretary and librarian there. He settled in Antibes as a singing teacher and organist, and subsequently was made maitre de chapelle at its cathedral (1921). He prepared a card catalogue of 18,000 Italian “cantate da camera” of the 18th century; ed. Chansons italiennes de la fin du XVIe siècle (canzonette a 4); continued the collections begun by Gevaert, Répertoireclassique du chant français and Répertoire français de l’ancien chant classique; and ed. a new collection, Répertoire Wotquenne (4 vols, publ.); also ed. violin sonatas of Tartini, Veracini, and others and composed much sacred music. The MSS of several important bibliographies in his collection were bought by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in 1929; these comprise Répertoire des textes publiés par les éditeurs parisiens Ballard, Histoire musicale et chronologique du Théâtre de la Foire depuis 1680 jusqu’à 1762, Histoire du nouveau Théâtre-Italien à Paris (1718-1762), etc. A large part of his private music library was also bought by the Library of Congress.
Writings
Catalogue de la bibliothèque du Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles (vol. 1,1894; with a suppl., Libretti d’opéras et d’oratorios italiens du XVIIe siècle, 1901; II, 1902; III, 1908; IV, 1912; V, 1914); Étude bibliographique sur les oeuvres de Baldassare Galuppi (1899; 2nd ed., aug., 1902 as Baldassare Galuppi: Étude bibliographique sur ses oeuvres dramatiques); Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1904); Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Stücke in Versen aus den dramatischer Werken von Zeno, Metastasio und Goldoni (1905); Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1905); Étude bibliographique sur le compositeur napolitain Luigi Rossi (1909; with thematic catalogue).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire