Marcel Godard

Marcel Joseph Godard was born on 2 March 1920 in Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne in the Ain department of France. He entered the priesthood and was ordained on 1 December 1946 in the chapel of Notre-Dame de l’Argentière in Oullins. At that time he was already active as maître de chapelle at the Petit Séminaire there.
In 1952 Cardinal Pierre Gerlier appointed Godard assistant director of the Institut Saint-Grégoire in Lyon. Louis Bouiller, who played an important role in the development of sacred music in Lyon, subsequently encouraged him to continue his musical studies in Paris. Godard studied at the Conservatoire National de Musique, where his teachers included Édouard Souberbielle in organ and Simone Plé-Caussade in counterpoint and fugue. He returned to Lyon in 1954.
After his return Godard became vicar at the church of Saint-Bonaventure in Lyon, where he founded a small children’s choir. In 1958 he was appointed maître de chapelle of the Primatiale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Lyon Cathedral. This appointment became the central position of his musical career. Around 1960–61, on the initiative of Jean Villot, he also established a mixed choir at the cathedral alongside the traditional boys’ choir.
Godard remained closely associated with Saint-Jean for more than two decades. From 1974 Jean-François Duchamp increasingly took over the practical direction of the Maîtrise and the mixed choir, while Godard continued to hold the title and responsibilities of maître de chapelle until 1984.
Alongside his cathedral duties, Godard was active as a teacher at several institutions in Lyon, including the École Gerson, the Cours Desbordes and the École Saint-Bruno des Chartreux. He also maintained a long association with the Institut de Musique Sacrée in Lyon and worked closely with Louis Bouiller in the training of church musicians. In 1987 he was officially appointed sous-directeur of the institute.
Godard played an important role in the wider organization of French sacred music. From 1972 to 1978 he served as president of the Union Fédérale Française de Musique Sacrée. Together with Bouiller he was also involved for many years in the so-called Camps Chantants, courses devoted to liturgical singing and sacred music, held especially at Cordon in Haute-Savoie.
His work as composer and church musician coincided with the profound changes in Catholic liturgy following the Second Vatican Council. Godard became one of the musicians who helped shape the new French-language liturgical repertoire. He worked extensively with official liturgical texts as well as with texts by poets and hymn writers such as Didier Rimaud and Marie-Pierre Faure. A characteristic principle of his compositional approach was that the music should grow out of and serve the meaning of the text.
After leaving his position at Saint-Jean, Godard became chaplain of the Basilica of Fourvière in 1985. In 1989 he was appointed titular canon, and in 1993 he officially retired. He nevertheless remained musically active well into old age. In 2005 he received the honorary title Prélat de Sa Sainteté.
Marcel Godard died on 16 February 2007 in Lyon at the age of 86.

As a composer, Godard devoted himself predominantly, though not exclusively, to sacred and liturgical music. His output was considerably larger than earlier estimates of about 150 works suggest. Different catalogues list well over two hundred compositions and arrangements, and the SACEM repertory alone contains more than 300 entries under his name. His works include masses, cantatas, passions, hymns, psalm settings, alleluias, motets, music for choir and organ, liturgical songs, organ pieces, piano music, guitar music and numerous arrangements and harmonizations.
Among his better-known large-scale sacred works are the Vêpres de l’Immaculée, composed in 1984 and still performed in Lyon. His catalogue also includes instrumental works such as the Petit livre d’orgue, a collection of twenty chorales.
Godard’s music continued to be cultivated after his death. An association devoted to his life and work was founded in 2012, and in 2025 the Prix Marcel Godard was established in his memory, explicitly referring to his ideal of “music in the service of the word”.

In my possession are two autograph manuscripts by Marcel Godard. The first is the composition Cathédrale on a text by Jean Vuaillat, composed in 1991. The presently available work catalogue lists the piece for baritone and organ. My manuscript, however, appears to contain a version for baritone and piano, which may represent an alternative or otherwise undocumented version of the work.
The second manuscript is entitled Évangile selon Saint Luc and is scored for choir. It is dated 2000. The work does not appear to be listed in the currently available catalogues of Godard’s compositions and may therefore represent an otherwise undocumented late work. Both manuscripts remain unpublished.