Chailley studied with Boulanger, Marc de Ranse, Delvincourt, and Büsser. He also made a special study of medieval polyphonic music and began the choral group Psallette Notre Dame. Chailley took a position as vocal ensemble professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1937 and later served as professor of music history at the Sorbonne, as well as the director of the Institute of Music of Paris. His compositional influences range from the modal styles of Gregorian chant and French folk music to a method based on the assimilation of the first 13 harmonics. Chailley was among the first composers to utilize the ondes martenot and to write unaccompanied monody. These characteristics are brought together in his opera Thyl de Flandre (1954).