Jules Martel

Martel, Jules

Jules Martel. Choir conductor, musicologist, historian, editor, b Acton Vale, near St-Hyacinthe, Que, 23 Feb 1905, d Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que, 8 May 1981; honorary D MUS (Ottawa) 1974. He entered the order of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1924 and was admitted to the priesthood in 1929. He was choir director and taught voice 1930-6 in Montreal and at the University of Ottawa. Thereafter until 1939 he studied at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, the Institut grégorien in Paris, and the École César-Franck, receiving a diploma from each institution. He was director of the school of music 1939-58 and of the Schola cantorum 1939-43 at the University of Ottawa. He was music director 1939-42 of CBC radio's 'L'Heure dominicale' and the founder, and director 1946-58, of the choir of the Marian Congress in Ottawa - renamed the Palestrina Choir in 1948. He became the president of the Comité interdiocésain de musique sacrée du Québec. Martel has written numerous articles on sacred music and after 1940 edited several books of hymns, masses, and psalms, for parish use, including Service pour les défunts (Ottawa 1965), Refrains liturgiques, and Le Livre du psalmiste (ibid 1967). He contributed chapters on church music to Music in Canada and Encyclopedia Canadiana, vol 2.