Jean Gilles (8 January 1668 – 5 February 1705) was a French composer, born at

Tarascon Tarascon (; ), sometimes referred to as Tarascon-sur-Rhône, is a commune situated at the extreme west of the Bouches-du-Rhône department of France in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Inhabitants are referred to as Tarasconnais or Tarasc ...

Biography

After receiving his musical training as a

choirboy A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble. As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that " Boy Scout" (also derisively) refers to someone who is considered honor ...

at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur at

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

, he succeeded his teacher

Guillaume Poitevin Guillaume Poitevin (2 October 1646 – 26 January 1706) was a French serpent player, maître de chapelle and composer. Biography Born in Boulbon near Tarascon, Poitevin was trained musically in the choir school of Avignon and then entered the c ...

as music master there. After moving on several times, he became music master at the Cathedral of St Etienne at

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

in 1697, as the successor of

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 ...

. His musical style was influenced by Campra, as were most musicians of his day. He composed motets and a famous

requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

, which was performed for the first time at his own funeral (because the original commissioner thought it too expensive to perform), but was later sung at the funeral services for

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of Fr ...

in 1764, Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland in 1766, and

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

in 1774. His motets were played frequently from 1728 to 1771 at 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 ...

. His choral works often alternate passages sung by the soloists with those sung by the chorus. In 1752, in ''Lettres sur les hommes célèbres du règne de Louis XIV'', Pierre-Louis d'Aquin said that Gilles would doubtless have replaced Lalande if he had lived long enough. Gilles died suddenly at the age of 37 in

Works

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

*Mass *Te Deum *24

grands motets The grand motet (plural grands motets) was a genre of motet cultivated at the height of the French baroque, although the term dates from later French usage. At the time, due to the stylistic feature of employing two alternating choirs, the works w ...

*5 motets for grand choeur *3 psalms *10 airs for solo voices, transcribed from the grands motets. *

Leçons de ténèbres Leçons de ténèbres ( 'lessons of darkness'; sometimes spelled Leçons des ténèbres) is a genre of French Baroque music which developed from the polyphonic lamentations settings for the tenebrae service of Renaissance composers such as Serm ...

Selected recordings

The ''Requiem'' is one of the most frequently recorded of all French baroque works. Recordings include two early recordings conducted by

Louis Frémaux Louis Joseph Félix Frémaux (13 August 1921 – 20 March 2017) was a French conductor. Life and career Frémaux was born in Aire-sur-la-Lys, France and came from an artistic background; his father was a painter, and his wife was a music teac ...

(1957) and (1965), then two landmark recordings conducted by

Philippe Herreweghe Philippe Maria François Herreweghe, Knight Herreweghe (born 2 May 1947) is a Belgian conductor and choirmaster. Herreweghe founded La Chapelle Royale and Collegium Vocale Gent and is renowned as a conductor, with a repertoire ranging from Rena ...

- the first paired with the ''Carillon des morts'' of

Michel Corrette Michel Corrette (10 April 1707 – 21 January 1795) was a French composer, organist and author of musical method books. Life Corrette was born in Rouen, Normandy. His father, Gaspard Corrette, was an organist and composer. Little is known of ...

(1709-1795) performed by the

Collegium Vocale Gent Collegium Vocale Gent is a Belgian musical ensemble of vocalists and supporting instrumentalists, founded by Philippe Herreweghe. The group is dedicated to historically informed performance. Founding and program Collegium Vocale Gent was founded ...

and

Musica Antiqua Köln Musica Antiqua Köln was an early music group that was founded in 1973 by Reinhard Goebel and fellow students from the Conservatory of Music in Cologne. Musica Antiqua Köln devoted itself largely to the performance of the music of the 17th and 18th ...

for Archiv (1981)Archiv 2533 461 the second with La Chapelle Royale for

Harmonia Mundi Harmonia Mundi is an independent record label which specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group. Its Latin name ''ha ...

(1990). Other recordings include the Boston Camerata directed by Joel Cohen (1989), Le Concert Spirituel and

Hervé Niquet Hervé Niquet (born 28 October 1957) is a French conductor, harpsichordist, tenor, and the director of Le Concert Spirituel, specializing in French Baroque music. Biography Born on 28 October 1957, Hervé Niquet was raised at Abbeville in the ...

(2000), and Les Passions directed by flautist Jean-Marc Andrieu (3 different recordings in 2007, 2009, 2012 and a pack of 3 CDs in 2013).

References

Grove Music Online
article "Jean Gilles" *''Dictionnaire de la musique en France'', Marcelle Benoit, ed. (Paris: Fayard, 1992) *Biography, in English: John Hajdu Heyer: "Jean Gilles (1668–1705): a Biography," in ''Musicology at the University of Colorado'', ed. W. Kearns (Boulder, CO, 1977), pp. 80–94. *Biography, in French: M. Prada: ''Jean Gilles: l’homme et l’oeuvre'' (Béziers, 1986) *Thematic catalogue: ''Catalogue thématique des sources du grand motet français'' (1663–1792),

Jean Mongrédien Jean Mongrédien, the son of , specializing in the seventeenth century, is a French musicologist. Biography A specialist of music of France of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and especially opera and religious music, since 2001 Mongré ...

, ed., (Munich, 1984)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilles, Jean 1668 births 1705 deaths French Baroque composers French composers of sacred music French male classical composers People from Tarascon 17th-century male musicians