Josse Boutmy (1 February 1697 – 27 November 1779) was a composer, organist and

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

ist of the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...

who established himself in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Background

Boutmy was born in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

. He was born into a musical family; his grandfather, father, brother and sons were all musicians, also called the Boutmy Dynasty. He worked with

Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn and Taxis , image = Anselm Franz von Thurn und Taxis.jpg , caption = , succession = Prince of Thurn and Taxis , reign = 21 February 1714 – 8 November 1739 , reign-type = Period , coronation = , predecessor = Eugen Alexand ...

(1736) and at the chapel royal of

(1744-1777). Boutmy married a woman named Katrina from

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

. Although Boutmy was a court organist and famous in his day, he was reduced at the age of eighty to appeals for charity and petitioned the court for retirement. He died in

, without receiving a pension, leaving his wife and twelve children, who also petitioned the court for charity.

Works

Boutmy composed three collections of pieces for the harpsichord: * First book (1738) * Second book (1738) * Third book, dedicated to governor Charles of Lorraine (ca. 1749) His style incorporates multiple European influences: French ( Rameau, Duphly), Italian (

Domenico Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the devel ...

), German (

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...

) and his harpsichord books mix dance pieces belonging to the

suite Suite may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition ** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach ** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó ** ''Suite ...

form, character pieces and

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''canta ...

elements, as did another Brussels musician of the same period, Joseph-Hector Fiocco. Argentine harpsichordist Mario Raskin discovered the lost first book of Boutmy's harpsichord pieces in a friend's collection. He later recorded it for the label Follia Madrigal. DÉCOUVERTE D'UN MANUSCRIT INEDIT JOSSE BOUTMY

References

External links

Sheetmusic of Boutmy at IMSLP
Belgian classical composers Belgian male classical composers Classical-period composers Belgian Baroque composers 1697 births 1779 deaths 18th-century classical composers 18th-century male musicians 18th-century musicians {{Belgium-composer-stub