Nicolas Goupillet also Coupillet or Goupillier (

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 h ...

, ca. 1650 - Paris, ca. 1713) was a French Baroque composer - albeit a composer who may not have himself composed all of his works. In 1683 the then fifty-year-old "Sun King"

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

commanded that a competition be held to select four rotating seasonal choirmasters to replace the retiring Henry Du Mont and at the Chapelle royale. Of the 35 applicants, four were selected:

Michel Richard Delalande Michel Richard Delalande

e Lalande E, or e, is the fifth Letter (alphabet), letter and the second vowel#Written vowels, vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worl ...

(; 15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote orch ...

, then the late

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 ...

's assistant

Pascal Colasse Pascal Collasse (or Colasse) (22 January 1649 (baptised) – 17 July 1709) was a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Rheims, Collasse became a disciple of Jean-Baptiste Lully during the latter's domination of the French operatic stage ...

;

Guillaume Minoret Guillaume Minoret (ca. April 1650 – 1717 or December 1720) was a French baroque composer. He was of the generation of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, but unlike him only a small part of his ''œuvre'' survives. Minoret famously won one of the four rota ...

a minor figure from

Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois The Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois is a Roman Catholic church in the First Arrondissement of Paris, situated at 2 Place du Louvre, directly across from the Louvre Palace. It was named for Germanus of Auxerre, the Bishop of Auxerre (378-4 ...

; and finally Nicolas Goupillet, from

Meaux Meaux () is a commune on the river Marne in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is east-northeast of the centre of Paris. Meaux is, with Provins, Torcy and Fontainebleau, ...

. Goupillet was dismissed from the Chapelle Royale in 1693 when it was discovered that he had been passing off as his own compositions the works of Henry Desmarets - a talented composer who had passed over because of his youth in the competition 10 years earlier. At first the story went around that Desmarets had simply heard his works performed by chance, later suspicions were aroused that Desmarets had been complicit in the deception and blown the whistle when Goupillet failed to pay him. And yet Goupillet clearly could compose when he had to, since the second stage of the original competition in 1683 secluded the applicants in Paris and had them all write

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 ...

to Psalm 31 ''Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates''. In any event the king was not too hard on Goupillet and awarded him a modest pension and a canonship at

Saint-Quentin, Aisne Saint-Quentin (; pcd, Saint-Kintin; nl, label=older Dutch, Sint-Kwintens ) is a city in the Aisne department, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It has been identified as the ''Augusta Veromanduorum'' of antiquity. It is named after Saint Qu ...

. Goupillet claimed to have been a choir-boy at Notre-Dame under Pierre Robert, but no evidence survives of this.Michel Antoine ''Henry Desmarest'' 1965 p34 Goupillet was first employed at Langres Cathedral till he was dismissed, for reasons unknown, in September 1681. He found work in Meaux, but then in 1683 applied for, and succeeded, in application for the Paris competition. Sébastien de Brossard lists several works (now lost) as possibly by Goupillet, but the way in which Brossard describes them suggest they were actually by André Pechon, Goupillet's predecessor at Meaux. During the 9 months of the year when he was not required in Paris, Goupillet returned to work with Pierre Tabart at Meaux.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goupillet, Nicolas 1650s births 1710s deaths French Baroque composers French male classical composers People involved in plagiarism controversies French conductors (music) French male conductors (music) Year of birth uncertain 18th-century classical composers 18th-century French composers 18th-century French male musicians 17th-century male musicians