Marcel Landowski; Master of Modern French Music

Marcel Landowski, 84, a master of modern French music who helped revive classical music training in French schools. Landowski was born in Brittany into an artistic and musical family. His father was a prominent sculptor and his great-grandfather was the composer Henri Vieuxtemps. He studied at the Lycee Janson-de-Sailly in Paris and at the National Higher Conservatory of Music, France’s most respected music academy. He was a prolific composer with more than 150 works--from symphonies and operas to movie scores--to his credit. Critics described his works as broadly spiritual and expressing the theme of the power of love. Landowski spoke passionately against what he called avant-garde “over-experimentation” in modern music and was a staunch defender of classical virtues. The first director of music, dance and the lyrical arts at the French Ministry of Culture, he was well known for championing a revival of music teaching by requiring all students to take classes in music and theory. On Wednesday at a Paris hospital.