Bernard Jumentier (24 March 1749 – 7 December 1829) was a French composer of classical and

sacred music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...

as well as maître de chapelle.

Biography

The son of a vine-grower, destined for the ecclesiastical state by his parents, Bernard Jumentier entered the seminary of Chartres to attend his studies. More interested in music than in orders, he has been placed according to his wish in the mastership of the

Chartres Cathedral Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly con ...

, under the direction of Michel Delalande (1739–1812), master of music of this church since 1761. It is therefore in this capacity of "choir boy" (child singing in the choir) that he learned singing, (including

plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text ...

) and more generally the main musical disciplines, harmony, counterpoint and musical composition. He was also trained to play the pipe organ and the harpsichord. He was only eighteen years old, in 1767, when he became a music master at

Senlis Senlis () is a commune in the northern French department of Oise, Hautes de France. The monarchs of the early French dynasties lived in Senlis, attracted by the proximity of the Chantilly forest. It is known for its Gothic cathedral and other ...

before returning to Notre-Dame de Chartres, as early as 1768, as

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

. He later served in

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

and subsequently in the

Coutances Cathedral Coutances Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Coutances) is a Gothic Catholic cathedral constructed from 1210 to 1274 in the town of Coutances, Normandy, France. It incorporated the remains of an earlier Norman cathedral. It is the s ...

. At the end of 1776 he was appointed chapel-master of the collégiale et royale de Saint-Quentin. He remained in control until his death in 1829, despite an interruption of about ten years, due to the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. In 1783 he wrote his ''Traité du chant''. A follower of Jean-Philippe Rameau and Christoph Willibald Gluck, from 1783 to 1787, he presented some of his motets, in the chapel of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

at Versailles, and at the Notre Dame of Paris cathedral. They were appreciated, but the progression of his career was brutally prevented by the Revolution of 1789. In 1783, in Paris, the

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel ( en, Spiritual Concert) was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, Londo ...

of the

Palais des Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, ...

gave a great chorus motet of Jumentier, whose title we do not know. In 1793, when the belongings of the Cathedral chapter of Saint-Quentin were confiscated and the choir house seized and then sold as bien national, he found himself, if not without resources and without asylum, at least somewhat seriously destitute (the Ecclesiastical Revolutionary Committee nevertheless granted the church musicians a small pension, calculated according to their years of practice). Jumentier had to live to a large extent on private lessons he gave. During the Revolution he also wrote a historical opera, ''Chloris et Médor'',''Chloris et Médor'' on Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres
/ref> and some patriotic '' romances''. In 1802, at the reopening of the churches, he resumed, at first gratuitously, the instruction of choir-children. He was able to direct them until 1825. It is also known that one of his masses (dedicated to Saint Cecilia) was given with great success in 1812, at the Saint-Eustache church in Paris, under the direction of

Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including '' La mort d'Abel'' (1810). He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin S ...

. Jumentier composed a large number of pieces of

and a little secular music. What remains of his original manuscripts (after the last war) is preserved in the library of Saint-Quentin (5

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

es for 4 voices and 5 masses for 5 voices, 2

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...

s, 3 ''

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Ch ...

'', a hundred motets and

psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

s as well as 2 symphonies). His Requiem mass was played at his burial. There are handwritten copies of some of his compositions in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in the fund of the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

s, including his '' De profundis''). He was the owner of the Stehlin harpsichord dated 1750, given in legacy and exhibited at the of Saint-Quentin, an eminent example of the great French craft of the 18th century.

Bibliography

* Nicole Desgranges, ''Bernard Jumentier, 1749–1829, maître de musique de la collégiale de Saint-Quentin'', 1997 and 2007 * Nicole Desgranges, ''Bernard Jumentier (1749–1829): Bernard Jumentier et son époque'', 2005 * ''Bernard Jumentier, 1749–1829 : maître de chapelle à Saint-Quentin'', Association pour l'expansion et la coordination des activités régionales musicales (Picardie), 1991 * Bernard Dompnier (under the dir. of), ''Maîtrises & chapelles aux XVII and XVIII : Des institutions musicales au service de Dieu'', Clermont-Ferrand, Presses Universitaires Blaise-Pascal, 2003, 568 p. *

Félix Raugel Félix Alphonse Raugel (27 November 1881 – 30 December 1975) was a French musician, conductor and musicologist. After studying at the conservatory of Lille where he obtained the first prize for viola, he continued in Paris where he worked in h ...

, ''Dossier Bernard Jumentier'', 1914 * F. Raugel, ''Bernard Jumentier (1749–1829), Maître de chapelle de la Collégiale de Saint-Quentin et ses œuvres inédites'', 1973 *

Pierre Larousse Pierre Athanase Larousse (23 October 18173 January 1875) was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume '' Grand di ...

, ''Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe : français, historique, géographique, mythologique, bibliographique'', 1866–1877 *

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie univer ...

, ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique.

ol. 4 OL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Orphaned Land, an Israeli progressive metal band * Old Lace (comics) a telepathically linked dinosaur hero Businesses and organizations * OLT Express Germany (IATA code: OL), a scheduled and charter airl ...

', 1866–1868 * Marcelle Benoît (dir.), ''Dictionnaire de la musique en France aux XVII and XVIII'', Paris, Fayard, 1992 (article : « Jumentier, abbé Bernard », by Béatrice Dunner). * CENTRE D'HISTOIRE « ESPACES ET CULTURES » (CHEC), ''Les musiciens d'église en 1790. Premier état d'une enquête sur un groupe professionnel'', in : « Annales historiques de la Révolution française », N0.2, Université Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, 2005, (article written by Stéphane GOMIS, Frédérique LONGIN, Laurent BORNE, Grégory GOUDOT and Bernard DOMPNIER, members of the ''Groupe de prosopographie des musiciens'' of the Université de Clermont-Ferrand). Travail sur la série D XIX (90, 91, 92) des Archives nationales.

References

External links

Bernard Jumentier (1749-1829), maître de musique de la collégiale de Saint-Quentin par Nicole Desgranges
on Thèses

on popfigaro.free
Bernard Jumentier (1749-1829) : ''Maître de musique de la collégiale de Saint-Quentin''
on Stanford libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Jumentier, Bernard French classical composers French male classical composers French composers of sacred music 18th-century classical composers 19th-century classical composers 1749 births 1829 deaths 18th-century French composers 18th-century French male musicians 19th-century French composers People from Eure-et-Loir 19th-century French male musicians