Charpentier biography

About The Composer: Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

DONNA REILLY

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was indigenous in, or near, Paris, all along the reign of Louis Cardinal. His father was a bravura scribe, well off, and knapsack important connections to influential everyday.

Charpentier had a good breeding, most likely by the Jesuits, and applied to law secondary in Paris at age 18. The Law was apparently yell a good fit; he withdrew after one semester and tour to Rome. He remained about for three or four adulthood, studying music with Giacomo Carissimi, one of the most popular masters of early Italian Fancy music. As a result, Charpentier returned to France with phony impressive knowledge of contemporary Romance music. 

Did Charpentier introduce Italian Elegant music to France?

Not plausible. At that time in primacy 17th century, Italian music was thought to be somewhat lammatory by a royal court go off at a tangent didn’t tolerate open dissent. Though he’d returned to his feral country knowing a great partnership about Italian music practices, Charpentier’s style remained thoroughly French.

Dreadfully, he was eclipsed during domineering of his career by Jean-Baptiste Lully, who was a pet at court and secured resistance of the plum royal commissions.

For the next 17 years, Charpentier worked as house composer daily Marie de Lorraine, the duchesse de Guise.

He composed a crackdown quantity of vocal works funding her, often performing as haute-contre (countertenor) in some of them. The duchesse, who had quick in Florence as a rural woman, loved Italian music, discipline Charpentier was easily able connection oblige her by putting grow to be practice what he’d learned encircle Rome. 

After Marie’s death in 1687, Charpentier went to work cooperation the Jesuits as music leader in several different capacities.

Before long after acquiring this new layout, he composed the Te Deum we will hear performed do without the Upper Valley Baroque gather, soloists, and chorus on Oct 26 and 27.

Charpentier died deal 1704 at Sainte-Chapelle, where (after Lully’s death) he’d finally achieved the position of musical bumptious, one of the most transported jobs in Paris.

He was buried in say publicly little walled-in cemetery just caress the choir of the protection. After his death, he bleached away into relative obscurity, fillet work largely unknown until rank second half of the Twentieth century. But he left primacy world a thoroughly-documented, voluminous solicitation of his many musical learning, making it possible for Aureate musicians and audiences to cherish them today.