Musicians - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier

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	Musicians - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (born December 23, 1689 in Thionville; died October 28, 1755 in Roissy-en-Brie) was a French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opera ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was purely a composer and one of the first to have no patrons but be able to make a living simply by writing new works of music.

Biography

The Boismortier family moved from the composer's birthplace in Thionville (in Lorraine) to the town of Metz where he received his musical education from Joseph Valette de Montigny, a well-known composer of motets. The Boismortier family then followed Montigny and moved to Perpignan in 1713 where Boismortier found employment in the Royal Tobacco Control. Boismortier married Marie Valette, the daughter of a rich goldsmith and a relative of his teacher Montigny.

Boismortier started publishing music, an act which began to earn him a reputation in Paris and in 1724, Boismortier and his wife moved to Paris where he began a prodigious composition career, writing for many instruments and voices. His first works appeared in Paris in 1724. He was prolific and by 1747 he had published more than 100 works in various vocal and instrumental combinations. His music, particularly for the voice, was extremely popular, and he became rich without, as mentionned, the aid of patrons.

Boismortier was the first French composer to use the Italian concerto form. He also wrote the first French solo concerto for any instrument, a concerto for cello, viol, or bassoon (1729). Much of his music is for the flute, for which he also wrote an instruction method (now lost). A notable piece of his still often performed is Deuxieme Serenade Ou Simphonie. The violinist Jean-Marie Leclair the elder (1697-1764) cultivated both solo and trio genres with charm although with less profundity. Boismortier and Rameau who both lived during the Rococo era of Louis XV continued the French tradition of beauty and sophistication with music desired by everybody.

A Quote

The music theorist Jean-Benjamin de la Borde wrote in his Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (Essay on ancient and modern music) in 1780 about Boismortier: Bienheureux Boismortier, dont la fertile plume peut tous les mois, sans peine, enfanter un volume. (Happy be Boismortier whose fertile pen can give birth without pain to a new piece of music every month.)

To such criticism, it is said that Boismortier would simply answer: "I'm earning money."

Principal Works

Les Quatre Saisons, cantatas (1724)
Les Voyages de l'Amour, opera ballet (1736)
Don Quichotte chez la duchesse, comic ballet 1743)
Daphnis et Chloé, opera ballet (1747)
Cinquante-neuvieme Oeuvre de M.Boismortier, Contenant Quatre Suites de Pieces de Clavecin for harpsichord
Daphné (1748)
Les Quatre Parties du Monde (1752)
Les Gentillesses, cantatilles (short cantatas)
Numerous concerti and sonatas

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Joseph Bodin de Boismortier ]

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