Pierre Pidoux


Pierre Pidoux, was a Swiss theologian, organist and musicologist, brother of Edmond Pidoux.

life

Pierre's father was a Protestant Swiss minister, who worked in Belgium and became a minister of the Eglise Libre in Winterthur. After a visit to Glasgow, he began to study the organ at the Conservatory in Geneva from 1933 to 1936. He founded and directed the Choeur J.S. Bach in Lausanne until 1948, holding at the same time an organ post in Lausanne. In 1948 he was appointed organist at the Protestant Church of Montreux, where he lived together with his wife, Gertrude Junod-Burger. From 1946 to 1965 he was in charge of the hymnology course at the theology faculty of the Eglise Libre in Lausanne; in 1964 he was given the honorary doctorate in theology by the university.

work

Pidoux’s activities have been devoted mostly to hymnology, musicology and teaching. Though he has edited many volumes of other early music, he is generally known as a specialist in the history of the Huguenot psalter. His magnum opus is the two-volume edition of text and melodies of this Psalter: Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, i: Les mélodies; ii: Documents et bibliographie. He promoted the music of the Protestant church. He was an editor of the series Collection de Musique Protestante andof the sacred music series Cantate Domino. He contributed music, harmonisations and texts to the new hymnal of the French-speaking Reformed Church of Switzerland. In this hymnal also many texts of his brother, Edmond Pidoux, literature professor in Lausanne, are present. In 1967 he co-edited the complete works of Claude Goudimel. He composed many works for mixed choir and organ.