Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was a French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to the public.
Native from the suburbs of Berry, the modest Bodin family settled in Thionville where the compositor’s father, an ex-military officer, became a confectioner. Towards 1691, the family moved to Metz, where Boismortier was to receive his musical education. From who? We now know that it was Joseph Valette de Montigny (1665-1738), an accomplished motetist and not Henry Desmaret. Boismortier followed his Maître to Perpignan in 1713, in the heart of the catalan countryside... as a receiver for the Royal Tobacco Control, a responsability which was a far cry from any musical post! In 1720, Boismortier married Marie Valette, his teacher’s distant niece who came from a family of rich goldsmiths. Having kept this position for 10 years, the adopted catalan left several traces of his musical activity. Two of his airs (Airs à boire) were published by Ballard, Paris in 1721 and 1724 which proves that Boismortier had already composed a great number of his compositions in Perpignan which he tested on the parisian public from the heart of his catalan province.
He did not even neglect the voice for which he composed a quantity of serious airs, french cantatas, small motets, motets for a large choir, and of course, opera-ballets: Les Voyages de l’Amour (1736), Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (1743), Daphnis and Chloé (1747) and two non-reprensented works: Daphné (1748) and Les Quatre Parties du Monde (1752). Amongst others, a victim of the “Querelle des Bouffons”, he retired from the musical scene towards 1753. Boismortier owned a small property, La Gâtinellerie, in Roissy-en-Brie, where he ended his days at the age of 66, after having asked to be buried in the nave of the parish church.
Boismortier matured in a bubbling Paris, inundated with Italian music with the impulsions of precursors such as Couperin, and caracterised by a lifestyle doted with pleasures that the Regent willingly encouraged. At this time, spacious rooms in appartments became very intimate and everything was pretty rather than beautiful; an infinite grace whose research sometimes rubbed shoulders with affectation. In music, the smallest whim became stately and long chaconne or knowledgeable germans, brought about a new fever. Boismortier noticed this change in sensibility and his work expressed it. And if Evrard Titon du Tillet in his last supplement of his “ Parnasse François ” (1756) referred to Boismortier as one of his most illustrious members “ here’s to the memory of one of the most illustrious french poets and musicians ”, we must surely give back this composer who was once scorned his true place.
Native from the suburbs of Berry, the modest Bodin family settled in Thionville where the compositor’s father, an ex-military officer, became a confectioner. Towards 1691, the family moved to Metz, where Boismortier was to receive his musical education. From who? We now know that it was Joseph Valette de Montigny (1665-1738), an accomplished motetist and not Henry Desmaret. Boismortier followed his Maître to Perpignan in 1713, in the heart of the catalan countryside... as a receiver for the Royal Tobacco Control, a responsability which was a far cry from any musical post! In 1720, Boismortier married Marie Valette, his teacher’s distant niece who came from a family of rich goldsmiths. Having kept this position for 10 years, the adopted catalan left several traces of his musical activity. Two of his airs (Airs à boire) were published by Ballard, Paris in 1721 and 1724 which proves that Boismortier had already composed a great number of his compositions in Perpignan which he tested on the parisian public from the heart of his catalan province.
He did not even neglect the voice for which he composed a quantity of serious airs, french cantatas, small motets, motets for a large choir, and of course, opera-ballets: Les Voyages de l’Amour (1736), Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (1743), Daphnis and Chloé (1747) and two non-reprensented works: Daphné (1748) and Les Quatre Parties du Monde (1752). Amongst others, a victim of the “Querelle des Bouffons”, he retired from the musical scene towards 1753. Boismortier owned a small property, La Gâtinellerie, in Roissy-en-Brie, where he ended his days at the age of 66, after having asked to be buried in the nave of the parish church.
Boismortier matured in a bubbling Paris, inundated with Italian music with the impulsions of precursors such as Couperin, and caracterised by a lifestyle doted with pleasures that the Regent willingly encouraged. At this time, spacious rooms in appartments became very intimate and everything was pretty rather than beautiful; an infinite grace whose research sometimes rubbed shoulders with affectation. In music, the smallest whim became stately and long chaconne or knowledgeable germans, brought about a new fever. Boismortier noticed this change in sensibility and his work expressed it. And if Evrard Titon du Tillet in his last supplement of his “ Parnasse François ” (1756) referred to Boismortier as one of his most illustrious members “ here’s to the memory of one of the most illustrious french poets and musicians ”, we must surely give back this composer who was once scorned his true place.
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was a French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to the public.
Native from the suburbs of Berry, the modest Bodin family settled in Thionville where the compositor’s father, an ex-military officer, became a confectioner. Towards 1691, the family moved to Metz, where Boismortier was to receive his musical education. From who? We now know that it was Joseph Valette de Montigny (1665-1738), an accomplished motetist and not Henry Desmaret. Boismortier followed his Maître to Perpignan in 1713, in the heart of the catalan countryside... as a receiver for the Royal Tobacco Control, a responsability which was a far cry from any musical post! In 1720, Boismortier married Marie Valette, his teacher’s distant niece who came from a family of rich goldsmiths. Having kept this position for 10 years, the adopted catalan left several traces of his musical activity. Two of his airs (Airs à boire) were published by Ballard, Paris in 1721 and 1724 which proves that Boismortier had already composed a great number of his compositions in Perpignan which he tested on the parisian public from the heart of his catalan province.
He did not even neglect the voice for which he composed a quantity of serious airs, french cantatas, small motets, motets for a large choir, and of course, opera-ballets: Les Voyages de l’Amour (1736), Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (1743), Daphnis and Chloé (1747) and two non-reprensented works: Daphné (1748) and Les Quatre Parties du Monde (1752). Amongst others, a victim of the “Querelle des Bouffons”, he retired from the musical scene towards 1753. Boismortier owned a small property, La Gâtinellerie, in Roissy-en-Brie, where he ended his days at the age of 66, after having asked to be buried in the nave of the parish church.
Boismortier matured in a bubbling Paris, inundated with Italian music with the impulsions of precursors such as Couperin, and caracterised by a lifestyle doted with pleasures that the Regent willingly encouraged. At this time, spacious rooms in appartments became very intimate and everything was pretty rather than beautiful; an infinite grace whose research sometimes rubbed shoulders with affectation. In music, the smallest whim became stately and long chaconne or knowledgeable germans, brought about a new fever. Boismortier noticed this change in sensibility and his work expressed it. And if Evrard Titon du Tillet in his last supplement of his “ Parnasse François ” (1756) referred to Boismortier as one of his most illustrious members “ here’s to the memory of one of the most illustrious french poets and musicians ”, we must surely give back this composer who was once scorned his true place.
Native from the suburbs of Berry, the modest Bodin family settled in Thionville where the compositor’s father, an ex-military officer, became a confectioner. Towards 1691, the family moved to Metz, where Boismortier was to receive his musical education. From who? We now know that it was Joseph Valette de Montigny (1665-1738), an accomplished motetist and not Henry Desmaret. Boismortier followed his Maître to Perpignan in 1713, in the heart of the catalan countryside... as a receiver for the Royal Tobacco Control, a responsability which was a far cry from any musical post! In 1720, Boismortier married Marie Valette, his teacher’s distant niece who came from a family of rich goldsmiths. Having kept this position for 10 years, the adopted catalan left several traces of his musical activity. Two of his airs (Airs à boire) were published by Ballard, Paris in 1721 and 1724 which proves that Boismortier had already composed a great number of his compositions in Perpignan which he tested on the parisian public from the heart of his catalan province.
He did not even neglect the voice for which he composed a quantity of serious airs, french cantatas, small motets, motets for a large choir, and of course, opera-ballets: Les Voyages de l’Amour (1736), Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (1743), Daphnis and Chloé (1747) and two non-reprensented works: Daphné (1748) and Les Quatre Parties du Monde (1752). Amongst others, a victim of the “Querelle des Bouffons”, he retired from the musical scene towards 1753. Boismortier owned a small property, La Gâtinellerie, in Roissy-en-Brie, where he ended his days at the age of 66, after having asked to be buried in the nave of the parish church.
Boismortier matured in a bubbling Paris, inundated with Italian music with the impulsions of precursors such as Couperin, and caracterised by a lifestyle doted with pleasures that the Regent willingly encouraged. At this time, spacious rooms in appartments became very intimate and everything was pretty rather than beautiful; an infinite grace whose research sometimes rubbed shoulders with affectation. In music, the smallest whim became stately and long chaconne or knowledgeable germans, brought about a new fever. Boismortier noticed this change in sensibility and his work expressed it. And if Evrard Titon du Tillet in his last supplement of his “ Parnasse François ” (1756) referred to Boismortier as one of his most illustrious members “ here’s to the memory of one of the most illustrious french poets and musicians ”, we must surely give back this composer who was once scorned his true place.
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