Pierre Gabriel Expilly (c. 1630 – c. 1690) was a 17th-century French

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

player and composer.

Biography

Gabriel Expilly's origin and education are unknown. The name is of

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

origin (Savoie, Isère).

Sub-Master of the Chapelle du roi

His first known job was as a sub-master of the Chapelle Royale of Versailles. The death of

Jean Veillot Jean Veillot (died before 1662) was a French composer and priest. In 1640, he succeeded Henry Frémart as maître de chapelle at Notre-Dame de Paris then replaced François Cosset, when he took charge in 1643 as sous-maître of the Chapelle roya ...

had been the occasion to renew the position of sub-master, which had been divided into quarters (trimesters). In two stages, it seems that the positions fell to

Thomas Gobert Thomas Gobert (Picardy, c. 1600 - 26 September 1672) was a French priest and composer. In 1630 he was a canon at Saint-Quentin, then maître de chapelle at Péronne, Somme. In 1635 he was appointed aumônier with Armand Jean du Plessis de Richel ...

, Pierre Robert,

Henry Du Mont Henri Dumont (also Henry Du Mont, originally Henry de Thier) (1610 – 8 May 1684) was a baroque composer of the French school, born in the Southern Netherlands. Life Dumont was born to Henry de Thier and Elisabeth Orban in Looz (Borgloon). Th ...

and Gabriel Expilly. For Expilly, his quarter seems to be the result of the duplication of the semiannual charge, first passed to Thomas Gobert and had been the subject of a competition in 1663, if one believes what

Pierre Perrin Pierre Perrin (c.1620 – 24 April 1675) was a French poet and librettist. Perrin, sometimes known as L'Abbé Perrin although he never belonged to the clergy, was born in Lyon. He founded the Académie d'Opéra, which later was renamed the Acad� ...

writes in the preface to his ''Cantica pro capella regis'' (1665): ::S’il luy plaist � Louis XIVde se ressouvenir du succès qu’ont eu plusieurs de ces cantiques, lorsqu’ils ont été chantez dans sa Chapelle ; entr’autres celuy du Martyr que luy fit entendre le sieur Expilly, lors de sa concurrence à la maistrise, qui ravit toute vostre cour, & qui fit dire à Votre Majesté qu’il avait combattu avec des armes avantageuses; & en suitte ceux dont il l’a régalée pendant son quartier, de Sainte Anne & de la Vierge martyre... Expilly held the quarter from July to September; he received wages of 1650 lt for his 1664 quarter, which includes his personal wages, food and

pages Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young mal ...

maintenance. In 1666 his wages were only 450 lt. He resigned in July 1668 without us knowing the cause of his departure. At this point, the sub-master's charge remained divided by quarters, but with two sub-masters alternating between them. (Pierre Robert and Henry Du Mont).

Viol player from the King's Chamber

Expilly then became a viol player in the King's Chamber. He is cited several times in the payment lists of the Chamber, at 600 lt per year. Around 1678, he worked alongside Charles Le Camus, then around 1688 with Étienne Lemoyne, successor of the previous one, both viol players. On 31 December 1689, he resigned his office in favour of

Antoine Forqueray Antoine Forqueray (September 1672 – 28 June 1745) was a French composer and virtuoso of the viola da gamba. Forqueray, born in Paris, was the first in a line of composers which included his sons Jean-Baptiste (1699–1782) and Nicolas Gilles (1 ...

. Since traces of him disappear after that, it is supposed he died shortly afterwards.

Works

Expilly wrote a significant amount of religious music, which seems to have earned him some esteem from his contemporaries, but his work is completely lost. The only remaining evidence is the printed booklet for the service of the Chapelle royale: *''Motets et élévations de M. Expilly. Pour le quartier de juillet, aoust et septembre 1666''. aris, Robert III Ballard 1666, in-4° digitalized o
Gallica
This booklet contains the texts of 35 motets, including 7 psalms, 4 hymns and 9 pieces by

; it also contains 8

elevations The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum � ...

, including a psalm and 3 texts by Perrin. This repertoire seems quite similar in function to the one Henry Du Mont produced at the same time: motets (probably with a large chorus) for the stages of divine service and, for elevations, more intimate pieces with a small number of members. Some of these lyrics had also been set to music by Thomas Gobert and Du Mont. Four

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Marga ...

texts are also mentioned with his name in the manuscript collection of Pierre Perrin's works of verse.Paris BNF (Mss.): Français 2008, f. 112r, 113v, 120r, 121v.

Bibliography

*Laurence Decobert
''Henry Du Mont (1610-1684), maistre et compositeur de la musique de la Chapelle du Roy et de la Reyne''
Liège : Mardaga ; Versailles : CMBV, 2011. partially digitalized o
Google books
*Marcelle Benoit
''Musiques de cour : chapelle, chambre, écurie, recueil de documents'' on WorldCat
Paris, Picard, 1971. *Laurent Guillo
''Pierre I Ballard et Robert III Ballard, imprimeurs du roy pour la musique (1599-1673)'' on philidor.cmbv.fr
Sprimont and Versailles: 2003. 2 vol.

References

External links

Motets et élévations de Monsieur Expilly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Expilly, Gabriel French Baroque composers French composers of sacred music French Baroque viol players 1630s births 1690s deaths