Le Chant du Monde
French record label and publishing house
Le Chant du Monde was a French music publishing house. It was created in 1938 by Léon Moussinac and was supported in the beginning by classical composers Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Charles Koechlin, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Albert Roussel, and conductors Roger Désormière and Manuel Rosenthal.
Le Chant du Monde is particularly known worldwide for having gathered the first collection of traditional music and ethnographic recordings. It commissioned composers to transcribe French oral traditions and music alike.
After World War II, the label acquired les Éditions sociales internationales and became the French editor of Russian composers Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Aram Khachaturian, and also the first producer of Léo Ferré, Mouloudji, Cora Vaucaire, then Colette Magny, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Uña Ramos and occasionally worked with Glenmor, Albert Marcœur, or Paolo Conte.
The company merged in 1993 with Arlesian-based French distributor and music label Harmonia Mundi, which was more focused on classical music.
They went on to publish classics old and new: chanson (Léo Ferré, Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Julos Beaucarne, Éric Lareine), gypsy jazz (Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, Tchavolo Schmitt, Raphaël Faÿs, Angelo Debarre, Biréli Lagrène, Florin Niculescu, Steeve Laffont, Yorgui Loeffler), French jazz, children's and traditional music, and classic American rock and roll (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins).
In November 2016, Music Sales (now Wise Music Group) acquired Le Chant du Monde's music publishing division from the PIAS Group.
References
External links
Former official website: "le chant du monde". Archived from the original on 13 June 2021.
The public source identifies “Le Chant du Monde” as french record label and publishing house. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chant, Monde and French.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Le Chant du Monde”, the useful work is to connect “french record label and publishing house” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3221021. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1993, 2016 and 2021.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Le Chant du Monde”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Le Chant du Monde primary sources, Le Chant du Monde archive and Chant research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Le Chant du Monde”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Le Chant du Monde” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.