Joseph François Salomon (April 1649 – 5 March 1732) was a French composer of the

Baroque era The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

. Born in

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

, he learnt to play the

bass viol The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bowed, fretted, and ...

and the

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

, and went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to work as a musician for the royal family. He was 52 when he composed his first opera, the ''

tragédie en musique ''Tragédie en musique'' (, musical tragedy), also known as ''tragédie lyrique'' (, lyric tragedy), is a genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. Operas i ...

'' ''Médée et Jason''.

Operas

*'' Médée et Jason'' (1713) *''

Théonoé ''Théonoé '' is an opera by the French composer Joseph François Salomon, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) on 3 December 1715. It takes the form of a ''tragédie en musique'' in a prologue and five acts. The l ...

'' (1715)

Sources

''Le magazine de l'opéra baroque'' by Jean-Claude Brenac (in French)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salomon, Joseph Francois 1649 births 1732 deaths Musicians from Toulon French Baroque composers French opera composers French male opera composers 18th-century French classical composers 18th-century French male musicians 17th-century French male musicians