Henry Desmarest

See also: Desmarest

Henry Desmarest is a Musicien French born with Paris in February 1661 and died with Lunéville the September 7th 1741.

His/her father, Hugues, were usher in Châtelet, and died in 1668 by leaving it only sons. It made studies among the pages of the vault of the king, and learned the music for which it was very gifted.

In 1682 it composed a Idylle at the time of the birth of the duke of Burgundy and the following year, contributed without success to the post of under-Master of the royal Vault. It Maria in 1689, and he was born a girl from this first marriage. He composed several scenic works on behalf of the abbot Coupillet, one of the under-Masters of the royal Vault, which made them pass for its own compositions, but in 1693, this one was returned after the discovery of its trickery.

His first wife, Elisabeth, died in 1696 and this accident tied the destiny of the musician for many years. Indeed, the following year, it exchanged a promise of marriage with Marie-Marguerite de Saint-Gobert, young girl a 19 year old whose father, doctor of Gaston of Orleans, did not want to intend to speak. Nevertheless, the couple had a child, and Mr. de Saint-Gobert started an legal action against Henry Desmarest for seduction and abduction. The lawsuit, open in 1699, ended in the judgment of Desmarest: the couple flees with Brussels to escape French justice.

May 28th, 1700, Desmarest, condemned by Contumacious, was hung in effigy in place of Strike: there could not be some discussion any more about turning over to France. But it obtained a station in Spain under the protection of Philippe V (the proper grandson of Louis XIV). The marriage was validated in 1702, but as of 1703 the French musicians were returned court of Spain, replaced by a troop of Italian musicians.

On recommendation of a friend, Desmarest found in 1707 a place of superintendent of the music at the court of the duke Léopold Ier of Lorraine to Nancy (at the time, the Lorraine was a sovereign state). It is henceforth in Lorraine that was to be held the remainder of its career and its life, punctuated by the birth of several children whose majority died in low age. Louis XIV always refused of grâcier Desmarest. That however arrived, later, after the death of the king by letters patent of 1720 confirmed the following year by the Parlement of Paris which raised all the judgments. A marriage contract was finally concluded: the husband was 60 years old. His wife died in 1727 and itself in 1741.

The music of Desmarest is primarily an incidental music, in particular in the kinds developped at the point by Lully: lyric tragedies ( Didon , Circé , Théagène and Cariclée , Iphigénie in Tauride , Renaud or the continuation of Armide ), opera ballets ( Loves of Momus , gallant Festivals ), pastoral heroic ( Diane and Endymion ), entertainments, cantatas, etc

External bonds

Its works lyric and their representations on site CÉSAR
Biography and discography
Édition supplements its works

Random links: