Constantin Piron Collection

Constantin Piron was a banker from Switzerland who liver for many years in Brussels. He was a good amateur pianist, and was a student of Albert Roussel and Emile Bosquet. He became a friend and accompanist to Paul Collaer. He was also a lecturer and participated in the activities of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Belgique. In 1920, he gave a talk about Igor Stravinsky, and it was there that Stravinsky’s music was heard for the first time in Brussels, "performed by mademoiselle Brélia, singer, and Mr. Collaer and Mr. Piron, pianists".


The Bibliothèque royale de Belgique has a collection of correspondance written by or to Belgian soldiers who were fighting in 1914, and here there can also be found letters by Constantin Piron.

During the Second World War, Piron lived in Semur-en-Auxois, not far from Dijon, where he found a collection of manuscripts and printed music from the eighteenth century. He donated this to the library of the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles on his return to Belgium in 1947. This collection consists principally of French music from the second half of the eighteenth century, and it contains over four hundred pieces written by ninety composers. It came from a family of lawyers, the Varennes, and it seems likely that the collection was assembled by a violinist, either professional or amateur. The collection gives a hint as to the nature of provincial musical life.

Constantin Piron is the author of L'art du Piano, a piano method with a preface by Marguerite Long (Paris, Fayard, 1949).