Jacques Duphly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Jacques Duphly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacques Duphly (also Dufly, Du Phly; January 12, 1715 July 15, 1789)[1] was a French
harpsichordist and composer.

Contents
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Early career as an organist

Career as harpsichordist
Later life
See also
Sources
References
External links

Early career as an organist

He was born in Rouen, France, the son of Jacques-Agathe Duphly and Marie-Louise Boivin. As a
boy, he studied the harpsichord and organ, and was employed as organist at the cathedral in vreux.
He obtained his first position at the cathedral of St. Eloi at the age of nineteen. In 1740 he added a
second position at the church of Notre Dame de la Ronde, which he maintained with the help of his
sister Marie-Anne-Agathe, who substituted for him.[2] His teachers were Franois d'Agincourt and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Later, Rousseau would ask him to contribute to his dictionary, for articles
relating to the art of playing the harpsichord.

Career as harpsichordist
In 1742, after the death of his father, Duphly decided to move to Paris, where he abandoned playing
the organ altogether and devoted himself to the harpsichord. He became famous as a performer and
teacher.[3] According to Louis-Claude Daquin: For some time he was organist at Rouen, but
doubtless finding that he had a greater gift for the harpsichord, he abandoned his first instrument.
One may suppose that he did well, for he passes in Paris for a very good harpsichordist. He has
much lightness of touch and a certain softness, which, sustained by ornaments, marvelously render
the character of his pieces. [4] According to Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg he devoted himself to the
harpsichord in order not to spoil his hand with the organ.[5]
He published four volumes of harpsichord music in 1744, 1748, 1756 and 1768.[6] The last book

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contained La Pothouin. He was considered by Pascal Taskin, the harpsichord maker, to be one of
the best teachers in Paris.

Later life
Some time after publishing his fourth volume of works, Duphly effectively disappeared from public
life, for reasons which are not known. In 1788, an advertisement in the Journal Gnral de la
France asked: We want to know what happened to M. du Phly, previously harpsichord master in
Paris, where he was in 1767. If he does not exist any more, we would like to meet his heirs, to
whom we have a communication to make.
He died on July 15, 1789, the day after the storming of the Bastille, in an apartment in the Htel de
Juign, lonely, forgotten, with his library - and without a harpsichord. A tip of the mystery veil
could be lifted by this fact: in 1785, Antoine de Sartine, ex-chief of Police, and ex-minister of the
Navy, lived at the same address. Duphly left his possessions to his servant, who was with him for
30 years.
Only fifty-two works by Duphly are known, most of which were published during his lifetime in
the four volumes of harpsichord music mentioned above. The titles of the work refer to well-known
protectors of art (e.g. La Victoire, la de Sartine) or other composers (e.g. La Forqueray). His late
music contains elements typical of the early classical movement - e.g. the use of Alberti bass, quite
dissimilar to Jean-Philippe Rameau or Franois Couperin.

See also
French baroque harpsichordists

Sources
1. Van Boer, Bertil H, Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period, Scarecrow Press Inc 2012
p.170
2. Van Boer, Bertil H, Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period, Scarecrow Press Inc 2012
p.170
3. Marshall, Robert L, Eighteenth Century Keyboard Music, Psychology Press, 2003 p.146
4. Kosovske, Yonit Lea, Historical Harpsichord Technique: Developing La douceur du toucher, Indiana
University Press, 2011 p.67
5. Kosovske, Yonit Lea, Historical Harpsichord Technique: Developing La douceur du toucher, Indiana
University Press, 2011 p.67
6. Marshall, Robert L, Eighteenth Century Keyboard Music, Psychology Press, 2003 p. 146

References
David Fuller. "Jacques Duphly", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed August 4, 2005),

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grovemusic.com (http://www.grovemusic.com/) (subscription access).

Sleeve notes of vinyl record "Le Clavecin Franais" par Pauline Aubert, Vogue MC 20123
Franoise Petit: Sur luvre de Jacques Duphly, Courrier musical de France, 23 (1968),
pp. 18890
On the address of M. de Sartine: A. de Maurepas et A. Boulant "Les ministres et les
ministres du sicle des Lumires", page 249

External links
Pices pour clavecin (http://jacques.duphly.free.fr) Complete scores (Book I, II, III and IV)
freely downloadable (modern edition), Discography.
Free scores by Jacques Duphly at the International Music Score Library Project
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Duphly&oldid=705635974"
Categories: 1715 births 1789 deaths Classical-period composers Composers for harpsichord
French classical composers French male classical composers People from Rouen
18th-century classical composers
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