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Joseph Bodin de Boismortier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (23 December 1689 28

October 1755) was a French baroque composer of instrumental
music, cantatas, opra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier
was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having
obtained a royal license for engraving music in 1724, he made
enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to
the public.

Contents
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Biography
A quotation
Principal works
Selected discography
Notes
References
External links

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier

Biography
The Boismortier family moved from the composer's birthplace in Thionville (in Lorraine) to the
town of Metz where he received his musical education from Joseph Valette de Montigny, a
well-known composer of motets. The Boismortier family then followed Montigny and moved to
Perpignan in 1713 where Boismortier found employment in the Royal Tobacco Control.
Boismortier married Marie Valette, the daughter of a rich goldsmith and a relative of his teacher
Montigny.
In 1724 Boismortier and his wife moved to Paris where he began a prodigious composition career,
writing for many instruments and voices. He was prolific: his first works appeared in Paris in 1724,
and by 1747 he had published more than 100 works in various vocal and instrumental
combinations. His music, particularly for the voice, was extremely popular and made him wealthy
without the aid of patrons. He died in Roissy-en-Brie.
Boismortier was the first French composer to use the Italian concerto form, in his six concertos for
five flutes op. 15. (1727). He also wrote the first French solo concerto for any instrument, a
concerto for cello, viol, or bassoon (1729). Much of his music is for the flute, for which he also
wrote an instruction method (now lost). His six sonatas for flute and harpsichord op. 91, first

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published in Paris in 1742, were printed with an homage to the celebrated French flautist and
composer, Michel Blavet (1700-1768). Today, they are probably his most popular pieces, for they
indeed show Boismortier at his most creative and graceful. A notable piece of Boismortier's that is
still often performed is the Deuxieme serenade ou simphonie. Boismortier and Rameau both lived
during the Rococo era of Louis XV and upheld the French tradition, composing music of beauty
and sophistication that was widely appreciated by the French musical public.
However, although known as a composer, Bodin de Boismortier was also famed at his time for his
excessively inattentive and wandering mind that often kept him from conducting himself his own
works.[1]
A full-length biography on the composer, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, by Stephan Perreau, was
published in France in 2001.
The playwright and novelist Suzanne Bodin de Boismortier was his daughter.

A quotation
The music theorist Jean-Benjamin de la Borde wrote in his Essai sur la musique ancienne et
moderne (Essay on ancient and modern music) in 1780 about Boismortier: Bienheureux
Boismortier, dont la fertile plume peut tous les mois, sans peine, enfanter un volume. (Happy be
Boismortier whose fertile pen can give birth without pain to a whole new book of piece of music
every month.)
To such criticism, it is said that Boismortier would simply answer: "I'm earning money."

Principal works
Les quatre saisons, cantatas (1724)
Six concertos for five flutes op. 15. (1727)
Concerto for cello, viol, or bassoon (1729)
Les voyages de l'amour, opera ballet (1736)
Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, comic ballet (1743)
Daphnis et Chlo, pastorale (1747)
Cinquante-neuvieme oeuvre de M.Boismortier, contenant quatre suites de pieces de clavecin
for harpsichord
Daphn, tragdie lyrique (unperformed[2]) (1748)
Les quatre parties du monde (1752)
Les gentillesses, cantatilles (short cantatas)
Numerous concerti and sonatas

Selected discography

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Herv Niquet has a made a substantial number of recordings of Boismortier's works:

Ballets de Villages (2000) performed by Le Concert Spirituel under the direction of Herv
Niquet (Naxos 554295)
Motets avec Symphonies (1991) performed by Le Concert Spirituel under the direction of
Herv Niquet (Accord 476 2509)
Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (1997) performed by Le Concert Spirituel under the
direction of Herv Niquet (Naxos 8.553647)
Daphnis & Chloe (2002) performed by Le Concert Spirituel under the direction of Herv
Niquet (Glossa GCD 921605)
Sonates Pour Basses (2005) performed by Le Concert Spirituel under the direction of Herv
Niquet (Glossa GCD 921609)
French Music for Two Harpsichords (2000) played Herv Niquet and Luc Beausjour
(Analekta 23079)
Other recordings include:
Sonates deux fltes traversires sans basse (2001) played by Stphan Perreau and Benjamin
Gaspon (Pierre Verany PV 700023)
Sonatas for flute and harpsichord, op. 91 (1994) played by Rebecca Stuhr-Rommereim and
John Stuhr-Rommereim (Centaur CRC 2265)
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier: Six Suites, Op. 35 for Unaccompanied Flute (2008) played by
Rebecca Stuhr (Lebende Music)
Les Maisons de Plaisance (1999) played by Wieland Kuijken and Sigiswald Kuijken (Accent
ACC 99132 D)
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier: Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord, Op. 91, played by American
Baroque (Naxos 8.553414)
Boismortier: Six Little Suites, Op. 27, played by Reversio-Darius Klisys (6-2
studio/REVERSIO. Catalog number:6-2STD-CD010)

Notes
1. Crdenas, Fabricio (2014). 66 petites histoires du Pays Catalan [66 Little Stories of Catalan Country]
(in French). Perpignan: Ultima Necat. ISBN 978-2-36771-006-8. OCLC 893847466.
2. Cook & Weller, op. cit., p. 527

References
Cook, Elisabeth, Weller, Philip, "Boismortier, Joseph Bodin de", in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The
New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, ISBN
978-0-19-522186-2, I, pp. 5267

External links

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bodin_de_Boismortier

Free scores by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier at the

Wikimedia Commons
International Music Score Library Project
has media related to
Flute duett (Kantoreiarchiv) (http://www.kantoreiarchiv.de
Joseph Bodin de
/archiv/recorder_flauti/flauti_ss/boismortier/)
Boismortier.
Article on Boismortier (http://eventail.chez-alice.fr
/boismortier_us.html) by Stphan Perreau on the Eventail (http://netoos.org/compagnieeventail/) Baroque Dance Company site
(French) Le magazine de l'opra baroque (http://operabaroque.fr/Cadre_baroque.htm)
(Italian) Amadeusonline Almanach (http://www.amadeusonline.eu/almanacco.php)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Bodin_de_Boismortier&
oldid=731890203"
Categories: 1689 births 1755 deaths French ballet composers Baroque composers
French classical composers French male classical composers French opera composers
People from Thionville 18th-century classical composers
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