Jean-Joseph Mouret

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Jean-Joseph Mouret (April 11, 1682, Avignon - December 22, 1738, Charenton-le-Pont) was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country. Even though most of his works are no longer performed, Mouret's name survives today thanks to the popularity of the Fanfare-Rondeau from his first Suite de Symphonies, which has been adopted as the signature tune of the PBS program Masterpiece Theatre.

[edit] Life

Mouret's father was a prosperous silk merchant of Avignon, an amateur violinist who recognized his son's precocious musical abilities and provided him with a fine education. The elder Mouret generously supported his son's decision to pursue a musical career. As a youth, Mouret proved himself a talented singer while also earning success for his compositions.

Around the age of twenty-five, Mouret settled in Paris. News of his arrival did not take long to spread and he was introduced to Anne, Duchess of Maine, whose salon at Sceaux was a center of courtly society in the declining years of Louis XIV. His genial character strongly assisted him in securing the patronage of the Duchess, who made him her Surintendant de la musique at Sceaux about 1708. At Sceaux he produced operas and was in charge of the sixteen bi-weekly Grandes Nuits in the season of 1714–1715, for which he produced intermèdes and allegorical cantatas in the court masque tradition, and other music, in the company of the most favoured musicians, for the most select audience in France. Mouret thus launched his adult career under highly favorable auspices.

At court Mouret maintained a post as singer, and directed the grand divertissements offered by the Regent, the duc d'Orléans at his château of Villers-Cotterêts on the occasion of Louis XV's coming-of-age, 1722.

In Paris he collaborated with the Académie Royale de Musique. He directed the orchestra of the Paris Opéra (1714–18), composed music and directed the Nouveau Théâtre Italien du Palais-Royal (1717–37)— for which he composed divertissements that accompanied, for example, the tender comedies of Marivaux, and which, printed, fill six volumes. Concurrently, he was director of the concert series established by the orchestra of the Opéra, the Concerts Spirituel (1728–34), positions which provided a public outlet for his own music and which permitted him to live in affluence. Mouret married and had one daughter. However, his later years were overshadowed by financial and social disappointments. Sinking into poverty, Mouret died in a charitable asylum run by the Church in Charenton-le-Pont.

[edit] Works

Mouret composed mainly for the stage. He contributed to the emergence of the distinctively French genres of lyric tragedy and opera-ballet but his jealousy of the rising star of Jean-Philippe Rameau led to the bitterness and madness in which he ended his days:

  • Les fêtes de Thalie opera-ballet for the Paris Opéra, (1714)
  • Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin for Sceaux, (1714)
  • Ariane et Thésée (1717)
  • Pirithoüs Paris Opéra, (1723)
  • Les Amours des dieux Paris Opéra, (1727), score
  • Les grâces héroïques (1733)
  • Le triomphe des sens (1732)
  • Le temple de Gnide Paris Opéra (1741).

Mouret also wrote airs, divertissements, cantatilles, motets, and instrumental works (sonatas, fanfares). Among his other compositions, the two Suites de Symphonies (1729) deserve special mention. The First Suite, renowned for its Masterpiece Theatre theme, is entitled "Fanfare for trumpets, timpani, violins, and oboes" and dedicated to the son of the Duchess of Maine, the Prince of Dombes. The Concert Spirituel, conducted by Mouret himself, gave the premier performance of this Suite. The Second Suite, scored for violins, oboes, and horns, was first played at the Hôtel de Ville before King Louis XV.

[edit] External links

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