Jump to content

Henri Desmarets

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromHenry Desmarest)

Henri Desmarets
BornFebruary 1661(1661-02)
Paris,France
Died7 September 1741(1741-09-07)(aged 80)
EraBaroque
Title page of the scores forLouis Lully'sOrphéeand Henri Desmarets'Circé,published byPhilidorin 1703

Henri Desmarets[1](February 1661 – 7 September 1741) was a French composer of theBaroqueperiod primarily known for his stage works, although he also composedsacred musicas well as secularcantatas,songs and instrumental works.

Biography[edit]

Early years and first successes[edit]

ThePalace of Versailles,where Desmarets' operaEndymionwas first performed in 1686

Henri Desmarets was born into a modestParishousehold in February 1661. His mother, MadeleinenéeFrottier, came from abourgeoisParisian family. His father, Hugues Desmarets was ahuissierin the cavalry at theGrand Châtelet.Desmarets' childhood was marked by his father's death when he was eight years old, his mother's subsequent remarriage in 1670, and the death of his two siblings. In 1674, he entered into the service ofKing Louis XIVas apageand choir singer in theChapelle Royale(Chapel Royal). According to Duron and Ferraton, he may have also previously sung as a choir boy inSaint-Germain l'Auxerroiswhich was the parish church of the kings of France.[2]While in the service of the king, he received a general education as well as music training fromPierre RobertandHenry Du Mont.He is also thought to have received training from the court composerJean-Baptiste Lully,who used the chapel pages as performers in his operas.[3]By 1680 he had become an "ordinaire de la musique du roi"(court musician) and had composed the first of hisgrand motets(Te Deum1678). Theidyll-ballet which he composed in August 1682 to celebrate the birth of the king's grandson, theDuke of Burgundy,found great favour at court and the following year he entered the competition to select fourmaîtres(masters) of the Chapelle Royale. He was only 22 at the time and according to some accounts, the King had vetoed his selection after he had passed the first round on account of his youth.[4]

After the competition, Desmarets petitioned the king to allow him to leave France for study with Italian composers, but Lully objected on the grounds that it would diminish his command of the French style. Desmarets remained at the court and made money by "ghost-writing" works for one of the composers who had won the competition,Nicolas Goupillet.[5]Goupillet was dismissed from his post ten years later when the deception came to light. In the meantime, Desmarets continued to find favour with his own compositions, most notably his motetBeati quorum(1683); hisdivertissement,La Diane de Fontainebleau(1686) and his first full-length opera,Endymion(1686). The first performance ofEndymionwas in theking's private apartmentsatVersailles,performed in parts over six days.The Dauphinewas so pleased with it that at her request it was performed again in its entirety at the court theatre ten days later.[3]Desmarets was increasingly gravitating towards stage works, but the king had granted Lully a monopoly on performances at theAcadémie Royale de Musiquein Paris, so that operas by other composers were not presented there until after Lully died in 1687.

Operas on the Paris stage and scandal in Senlis[edit]

Desmarets'Te Deumwas performed in the oratory of theLouvre Palacein February 1687 to celebrate Louis XIV's recovery from illness, and later that year the king granted him a pension of 900livres.Desmarets married Élisabeth Desprez, the daughter of a Parisian blade manufacturer, in 1689, and the following year their daughter, Élisabeth-Madeleine, was born. He became the Chapel Master of theJesuitcollegeLouis-le-Grandin 1693 and premiered his operaDidonin June of that year. It was the first of his stage works to be performed at the Académie Royale de Musique. Over the next two years three more of his operas premiered there:Circé(1694),Théagène et Cariclée(1695), andLes amours de Momus(1695).

In the summer of 1696, Élisabeth Desmarets died, leaving him with six-year-old Élisabeth-Madeleine to parent. Desmarets became a frequent visitor to the Saint-Gobert family inSenlis,who offered to help him take care of Élisabeth-Madeleine. Both families had been friends since 1689, and Desmarets had given singing lessons to Marie-Marguerite de Saint-Gobert when she was fifteen. During these visits, Desmarets and the now eighteen-year-old Marie-Marguerite fell in love and within six months of his wife's death, they asked her father, Jacques de Saint-Gobert, for permission to marry. He flatly refused and put his daughter in a convent when he discovered that she was pregnant. In the midst of all this, Desmarets was preparing his operaVénus et Adonisfor its 1697 premiere. The lovers eloped to Paris and Marie-Marguerite gave birth to a son in February 1698.

Exile[edit]

After the elopement, nearly three years of complicated court cases ensued with Marie-Marguerite's father accusing her mother, Marie-Charlotte de Saint-Gobert, of complicity in the affair. She in turn accused her husband of attempting to poison her. Saint-Gobert disinherited his daughter and had Desmarets charged with seduction and kidnapping. Desmarets and Marie-Maguerite fled to Brussels before he could be arrested, leaving his operaIphigénie en Taurideunfinished. He was eventually condemned to deathin absentiain May 1700. With no possibility of returning to France, Desmarets took a position in Spain as the court composer toPhilip V.There he and Marguerite were officially married. He left Spain in 1707 to become the master of music at the court ofLeopold, Duke of Lorraineat theChâteau de Lunéville.(At the time, Lorraine was not officially part of France.) While he was in exile, his friendsJean-Baptiste MathoandAnne Danican Philidorkept his artistic reputation alive in France by ensuring that his works continued to be performed and published there.André CampracompletedIphigénie en Tauridefor him and it premiered in Paris in 1704.

Final years[edit]

Desmarets was finally pardoned by theFrench Regentin 1720, and his second marriage was officially recognized. He applied to become the master of the Chapelle Royale at the court ofLouis XVin 1726, but was unsuccessful and remained in Lorraine for the rest of his days. Desmarets died in Lunéville on 7 September 1741 in his 80th year and was buried there in the convent church of the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth. Marie-Marguerite had died fourteen years earlier. Only two of their many children survived them, Francois-Antoine (1711–1786), who became a high-ranking official inSenlisand Léopold (1708-1747), who became a cavalry officer and for many years was the lover of novelist and playwrightFrançoise de Graffigny.Élisabeth-Madeleine took care of him in his old age and died a few months after her father.

Works[edit]

Both the music and the text for some of the works listed here have been lost. In other cases, only thelibrettoremains.[6]

Stage works[edit]

Cantatas[edit]

  • Le couronnement de la reine par la déesse Flore,text by Marchal, 1724 (music lost)
  • Clytie,1724 (music lost)
  • Le lys heureux époux,text by Marchal, 1724 (music lost)
  • La toilette de Vénus,text byCharles-Jean-François Hénault(date unknown, music lost)

Anthems[edit]

  • De profundis
  • Te Deum from Paris[11]
  • Te Deum from Lyon[12]
  • Veni Creator
  • Cum invocarem
  • Deus in adjutorium
  • Quemadmodum desiderat
  • Beati omnes
  • Nisi Dominus
  • Exaudiat te Dominus
  • Usquequo Domine from Lyon[12]
  • Usquequo Domine from Paris[13]
  • Lauda Jerusalem[13]
  • Domine ne in fuore[13]
  • Confitebor tibi Domine[13]
  • Dominus regnavit[13]
  • Mass for double chorus & double orchestra[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^First name often spelled asHenry;surname variously asDesmarest,Desmaretz,Desmarais.See Wood (2001).
  2. ^Duron and Ferraton (2006) p. 173
  3. ^abWood (2001)
  4. ^See Fétis (1836) p. 294; Sadie (1998) p. 117; and Greene (1986/2007) p. 187.
  5. ^Sadie (1998) p. 117
  6. ^The list of works is compiled primarily from Warszawski (2004), Duron and Ferraton (2006), and Castil-Blaze (1855)
  7. ^Jean Duron, Nathalie Berton."Les petits opéras, La Diane de Fontainebleau".boutique.cmbv.fr.
  8. ^Jean Duron and Géraldine Gaudefroy-Demombynes."tragédies lyriques, vol.1: Didon".boutique.cmbv.fr.
  9. ^Duron, Jean."Tragédies lyriques, vol.4: Vénus & Adonis".boutique.cmbv.fr.
  10. ^Duron and Ferraton (2006) p. 7. Note that some older references, e.g. Casaglia (2005) and Girdlestone (1972) p. 340, give the premiere date as 17 March.
  11. ^CMBV."Te Deum de Paris".
  12. ^abCessac, Catherine."Grands motets de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts de Lyon".boutique.cmbv.fr.
  13. ^abcdeDuron, Jean."Grands motets lorrains pour Louis XIV".boutique.cmbv.fr.
  14. ^Jean Duron and Xavier Janot."Messe à deux chœurs et deux orchestres".boutique.cmbv.fr.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Desmarets&oldid=1218353047"