Marc-Antoine Désaugiers (1742 – 10 September 1793) was a French composer of numerous operas as well as a cantata on the

storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille ( ), which occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison k ...

and several pieces of sacred music. He was born in

Fréjus Fréjus (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, Var, Saint-Raphaël ...

. He studied music there but was largely an

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

. Désaugiers settled in Paris in 1774 where he first came to prominence with his French translation of Giovanni Battista Mancini's ''Pensieri e riflessioni pratiche sopra il canto figurato''. His translation, published in 1776 under the title ''L'Art du chant figuré'', was much admired by

Gluck Christoph Willibald ( Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire at ...

who became his close friend. Désaugiers died in Paris. His son, Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers was also a composer.

References

1742 births 1793 deaths People from Fréjus French opera composers French male classical composers {{France-composer-stub