French historian, musicologist, translator, music critic, and archivist.

He was born on July 6, 1861, in El Havre (France), and passed away on February 25, 1942, in Paris. He was the son of Paul-Alfred de Curzon, a painter. He married Nathalie Jacquinot de Presle. He entered the École Nationale des Chartes in 1879, where he studied history and archaeology. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1882, , and that same year he became an archivist and curator at the Archives Nationales in Paris, where he later became director until 1926. During this time, he published the first works on the subject: "État sommaire des pièces et documents concernant le théâtre et la musique conservés aux Archives nationales à Paris" (1899) and "Répertoire numérique des archives de la Maison du Roi" (1904). Attracted to music, he took some voice lessons in 1885. He began translating "Lettres de W. A. Mozart" in 1888 and completed it in 1898. He also translated "Écrits sur la musique et les musiciens" (1894) by Robert Schumann. After the death of his father, he donated some of his works to the Musée de Poitiers in 1896.

From 1899, he was a music critic for the "Gazette de France". Interested in theater and opera, he published "Le théâtre contemporain et le répertoire de nos trois grandes scènes" (1895), "Le théâtre espagnol et sa visite à Paris" (1898), and "Felipe Pedrell et Les Pyrénées" (1902), among others. In 1900, he wrote "Essai de classement d'une bibliographie générale de la musique" and later published biographies of musicians such as "Grétry" (1907), "Rossini" (1920), and "Fauré" (1923). He was a member of the Société de l'Histoire du Théâtre since 1914 and also served as the librarian of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, co-founder of the Société Française de Musicologie, and vice president of the Association de la Critique dramatique et musicale. He was awarded the titles of Officier d'Académie in 1903, Officier de l'Instruction Publique in 1908, and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1921. From 1920, he collaborated with "Le ménestrel", and in 1928 succeeded Adolphe Jullien at "Journal des Débats", a newspaper from which he wrote to the composer Manuel de Falla. Other of his publications appeared in journals such as "Bulletin français de la S.I.M.", "Revue de la France moderne", "Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du théâtre", "Guide musical", "Monde Musical", "Revue internationale de musique", "Revue de musicologie", and "Guide musical" of Brussels.