Jean-Baptiste Forqueray
Encyclopedia
Antoine Forqueray
Antoine Forqueray was a French composer and virtuoso of the viola da gamba.Forqueray, born in Paris, was the first in a line of composers who included his brother Michel and his sons Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas Gilles...
, was a player of the viol
Viol
The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
and a composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Forqueray was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He is most famous today for his 1747 publication of twenty-nine pieces for viol and continuo
Figured bass
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
which he attributed to his father (except for three, which he himself took credit for). In the advertissements he states that he was responsible for the bass line (thus the figures as well) and the viol fingerings. Stylistically, they are very much influenced by Italian music and belong to the generation of Jean-Marie Leclair
Jean-Marie Leclair
Jean-Marie Leclair l'aîné, also known as Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder, was a Baroque violinist and composer. He is considered to have founded the French violin school...
(1697-1764) and Jean-Pierre Guignon (1702-1774). Modern violists regard these Pieces de Viole as the most virtuosic music for the instrument. Only Paolo Pandolfo
Paolo Pandolfo
Paolo Pandolfo is an Italian virtuoso player, composer, and teacher of music for the viola da gamba.He began his studies as a double bass and guitar player, becoming a skilled performer of jazz and popular music. In the mid-late 1970s he studied viola da gamba at the Rome Conservatory...
has attempted to record the complete publication.
Forqueray arranged the same pieces for harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and published these in 1749 (ed. Colin Tilney
Colin Tilney
-Education and professional life:Born in London, Tilney studied music and modern languages at Cambridge University, studied harpsichord with Mary Potts at Kings College, Cambridge, and became a student of Gustav Leonhardt...
, Paris, 1970) but remarkably did not transpose
Transposition (music)
In music transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key...
any of the music, so the melodies lie relatively low in the range of the harpsichord.
Forqueray's pupils included Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
's daughter Princesse Henriette-Anne and the future King Friedrich Wilhelm
Friedrich Wilhelm
The German name Friedrich Wilhelm usually refers to several monarchs of the Hohenzollern dynasty:*Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg *Frederick William I , King in Prussia*Frederick William II , King of Prussia...
of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
. Forqueray was married twice: to Jeanne Nolson on 29 July 1732 and, after her death, to the harpsichordist Marie-Rose Dubois on 13 March 1741. He died in Paris.