Louis-Nicolas Clérambault

Born	December 19, 1676(1676-12-19) Paris
Origin	France
Died	October 26, 1749(1749-10-26) (aged 72) Paris
Occupations	Music Composer
Instruments	organ
Years active	1704-1749

	Basse et dessus de trompette (1710) Movement V of Suite du Premier Ton (Suite in C major) from his 1710 publication, Livre d'Orgue.
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Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (19 December 1676 – 26 October 1749) was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born and died in Paris.

Biography

Clérambault came from a musical family (his father and two of his sons were also musicians). While very young, he learned to play the violin and harpsichord and he studied the organ with André Raison. Clérambault also studied composition and voice with Jean-Baptiste Moreau.

Clérambault became the organist at the church of the Grands-Augustins and entered the service of Madame de Maintenon. After the death of Louis XIV and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, he succeeded the latter at the organ of the church of Saint-Sulpice and the royal house of Saint-Cyr, an institution for young girls from the poor nobility. He was responsible there for music, the organ, directing chants and choir, etc. It was in this post—it remained his after the death of Madame de Maintenon—that he developed the genre of the "French cantata" of which he was the uncontested master. In 1719 he succeeded his teacher André Raison at the organs of the church of the Grands-Jacobins.

His Motet du Saint Sacrement in G major is one of the first French works known to have been performed in Philadelphia.^[1]

Works

His important published work includes:

• a large number of religious pieces with chants and choirs, (motets, hymns, Magnificat, Te Deum etc.);
• more than 25 secular cantatas on subjects often inspired by Greco-Roman myths;
• sonatas for violin and basso continuo:
• a book of dance pieces for the harpsichord (1704) in which he adopted the tradition of the unmeasured prelude;
• a book of organ pieces in two suites (1710) in which melodic charm wins out over religious spirit. These two collections seemed destined to begin a cycle of pieces in all keys but Clérambault never completed the cycle.

By opus number

See also

• French organ school

References

External links

• 1. Suite (Score)
• Duo
• Flûtes
• Caprice sur les grands jeux
• Basse et dessus de trompette
• Free scores by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault at the International Music Score Library Project
• Livre d’orgue. Suite, no. 1, Basse et dessus de trompette ou de cornet separé, en dialogue From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection