French journalist, musicologist and radio producer Marcel Marnat was born in Lyon on 6 July 1933.
Self-taught, he wrote for various magazines and newspapers on a variety of cultural subjects including classical music and jazz. He also wrote about new record releases and wrote texts for classical CD booklets.
He became secretary of the Ravel Foundation and is best known for his 1986 biography of Maurice Ravel, which includes a catalogue of the composer's works as an appendix. His 2005 book on Puccini received several prizes. He also wrote about Beethoven, Haydn, Musorgsky, Stravinsky, Vivaldi and about painting and literature.
From 1978 until 1992 he organised the programming for the French classical music and jazz radio channel France Musique, and from 1990 he worked for the Swiss cultural radio channel Espace 2.
Marcel Marnat died in Paris on 17 December 2024, aged ninety-one.