Jean-François Lalouette (1651-1728) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of the

Baroque period The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

(ca. 1600–1750).

Early life

Lalouette (also spelled "Lallouette") had his first musical education in the school choir of St. Eustache in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He studied

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

with Guy Leclerc and composition with Jean-Baptiste de Lully. Lalouette was appointed as Lully’s assistant. It is known that Lalouette was asked by Lully to complete the internal parts of some of the latter’s works. But, after having been heard claiming credit for writing the better part of Lully’s

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, ''Isis'' (1677), not surprisingly he was fired by Lully from his job as assistant.Romain Rolland - Some Musicians of Former Days - Page 166 1968 "Lully dismissed Lalouette because " he had been giving himself the airs of a master, and boasted that he had composed some of the best pieces in Isis." "

Between Italy and France

In April 1678, he appeared at the

Court of Savoy The Hof van Savoye (Court of Savoy) or Palace of Margaret of Austria is an early 16th-century building in Mechelen, Belgium. It was one of the first Renaissance buildings in Northern Europe. Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of the N ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, where he was appointed as “

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

” and placed to guide the group of

violinists The following lists of violinists are available: * List of classical violinists, notable violinists from the baroque era onwards * List of contemporary classical violinists, notable contemporary classical violinists * List of violinist/composers, ...

in the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

. But, by July 1679 he was fired again. He returned to

. During that time, he apparently wrote an

, since there is a letter from a royal official in 1681 forbidding any further performance of his work on the grounds that it violated the privilege conferred by

King Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

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on Lully. News of activities for the period 1683 to 1693 is rather sparse. In April 1683, Lalouette was refused the possibility of competing for one of the four posts of '' sous-maître'' of the chapelle royale. Apparently, he was able to self-finance a stay at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1689, where he composed a concerto in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

style that had at least one performance. Around 1692, he can be located in the environs of St. Germain-l’Auxerrois, Paris.

Choirmaster and Priest

In December 1693, he was appointed

Choirmaster A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

of the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

, and remained there until February 1695. For the period 1695 to 1700, there are conflicting reports. All that can be said with certainty is that, in November 1700, Lalouette was appointed to succeed

André Campra André Campra (; baptized 4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744) was a French composer and conductor of the Baroque era. The leading French opera composer in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Campra wrote several '' tra ...

as choirmaster of the cathedral, Notre Dame of

. In 1716, he asked to be relieved from the arduous task. His resignation was accepted; and, he became a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

next door at the :fr:Église Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris, a small baptistery on Notre-Dame's north flank (demolished in 1751). Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1718 Lalouette requested to be re-instated in his position as

in the main cathedral since he regretted the poor quality of the performances of his music.

Retirement and death

His final resignation from all work came in January 1727. He was granted an annual pension of 400 ''livres''. After his death, the canons of the church to which he belonged agreed to donate his entire body of music for preservation in the archives.

Works

Motets In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margare ...

(

, 1726) * Psalm, ''Miserere'' for Grand Choir & Hymn, ''Veni Creator'' for 3 voices (

, 1730) * ''Missa Veritas'' (Parigi, 1744) * ''

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 elementar ...

Plain Chant 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. ...

'' * Motet, ''O Cibum super Omnia'' (also attributed to

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

) * 6 Motets (attributed to

Sébastien de Brossard Sébastien de Brossard, pronounced e.bɑs.tjẽ də brɔ.saːr (12 September 1655 – 10 August 1730) was a French music theorist, composer and collector. Life Brossard was born in Dompierre, Orne. After studying philosophy and theology a ...

; also, to

) * ''

Menuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accompa ...

pour le premier dessus'' Lost Works: Works during sojourn in

, ca. 1678–1680, Concerto (dated, probably 1689?). Serenade, a 3, 1678. ''Ballets airs'', ''musiche di scena''

References

*''Handel Forever''
Jean-Baptiste François Lallouette
*

Jean-Paul C. Montagnier Jean-Paul C. Montagnier (born September 28, 1965 at Lyon) is a French musicologist. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he received two first prizes in musical analysis (1988, professor: Claude Ballif) an ...

, ''The Polyphonic Mass in France, 1600-1780: The Evidence of the Printed Choirbooks,'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lalouette, Jean-Francois 1651 births 1728 deaths French male classical composers French Baroque composers 18th-century classical composers 18th-century French composers 18th-century French male musicians 17th-century male musicians