[4] At the same time, he did not neglect the teaching and popularization works (music history, method of piano reading, guide for young pianists, etc.).
[1] Jacques Chailley was a member of a resistance movement gathered around the French Communist Party: the Front National des Musiciens, created in May 1941, during the Second World War, after the invasion of the USSR by the German armies.
It was a specific resistance organization for music professionals, created by Elsa Barraine, Roger Désormière, Louis Durey (all three close to the French Communist Party), Roland-Manuel (himself a Jew, former student of Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum), and Claude Delvincourt.
[4] He directed the doctoral theses of many recognized musicologists (including Barry S. Brook, Trần Văn Khê, Simha Arom, Amnon Shiloah, Mireille Helffer, Jacques Viret, Michel Hugo, Jean-Rémy Julien, Annie Labussière, Danièle Pistone...).
Always remained in the post-Debussy French tradition with a modal language close to Ravel, Roussel and Honegger[1] and firmly opposed the atonality and serialism "avant-gardes" (very much in vogue in the post-war years).
His results are recorded in a voluminous file, almost entirely by Jacques Chailley's hand, which includes, in particular, the individual declarations of the pupils and the carefully established lists of names.
[10] Jean Gribenski further specifies that the list drawn up by Rabaud and Chailley was not communicated to the Germans, and that the exclusion of Jewish students took place only two years later, under duress, while the Conservatoire was led by Claude Delvincourt.
She writes: Following remarks of the German authorities, astonished at the non-application of anti-Semitic measures to the pupils,[16] he [Rabaud] sent an internal note to the 60 teachers present on 4 October [1940] in the school, asking them to have their students complete a statement about their racial origins.
Alten further writes that Jewish students of the Conservatoire were excluded from participating in the final examinations in 1942, under pressure from the Vichy Government.
Jacques Chailley has published many outstanding works, both on Greek and medieval music, on the Passions, the chorales for organ and The Art of Fugue by J. S. Bach, the Carnaval by Schumann, Tristan by Wagner.