Guillaume Poitevin (2 October 1646 – 26 January 1706) was a French

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

, church vocalist,

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent symbolism, the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serpen ...

player, conductor,

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He was trained as a singer in his youth at the

Church of St. Trophime, Arles The Church of St. Trophime () (''Trophimus'') is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral located in the city of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône Department of southern France. It was built between the 12th century and the 15th century, and is ...

in his native city where he worked as a

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with a voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America too) no m ...

. His gifts as serpent player earned him a position at the

Aix Cathedral Aix Cathedral () in Aix-en-Provence in southern France is a Roman Catholic church and the seat of the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence and Arles. The cathedral is built on the site of the 1st-century Roman forum of Aix. Built and re-built from the ...

in 1663. He remained at the Aix Cathedral until his death nearly forty years later. There he became an ordained priest in 1672, and served in a variety of roles both musical and non-musical. He is best remembered for being an outstanding music teacher and director of the cathedral's choir through his role as maître de chapelle; a post he held intermittently from 1667 until his sudden death in 1706 at the age of 59.

Biography

Born in

Boulbon Boulbon (; ) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. The Baroque composer and serpent player Guillaume Poitevin (1646–1706) was born in Boulbon. Population See also * Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône depar ...

near

Arles Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...

, Guillaume Poitevin was to son Roc Poitevin, a merchant who owned a

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...

shop. He was trained as a

in the choir of

. He was singing at that church when

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

visited Arles in 1660. Poitevin was also a

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

player who was gifted at playing the

, an early instrument in the

brass family A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meaning "lip" and "sound", ...

. His skills on this instrument earned his a position at the

where he began working on November 17, 1663. He devoted himself to religious life, receiving the

tonsure Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in ...

on March 8, 1665. He was ordained as a priest on April 2, 1672 and was made a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...

at the Aix Cathedral on May 14, 1677. Poitevin worked as the maître de chapelle of the Aix Cathedral intermittently during his years of service at that church. He was a gifted teacher, and many of his pupil's in cathedral's choir went on to successful careers as musicians. He was first appointed to the post of maître de chapelle on April 23, 1667 and remained in that role until July 1680 when he requested reassignment. After nearly five years of absence from that post, he returned the role in January 1685 and continued to serve in that capacity until May 1693 when he reached his thirty year service mark and the regulations of the church mandated he must retire. His pupil Jean Gilles succeeded him at this time. Gilles was in turn succeeded by another of Poitevan's pupils, Jacques Cabassole. Poitevin returned to the post of maître de chapelle for a third time in that role in May 1698 at the request of. This time, he remained the maître de chapelle until his sudden death at the Aix Cathedral on January 26, 1706 at the age of 59. Other musicians who were trained by him included

André Campra André Campra (; baptized 4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744) was a French composer and conductor of the Baroque era. The leading French opera composer in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Campra wrote several '' trag ...

, François Estienne, Claude Mathieu Pelegrin, Laurent Belissen, and Antoine Blanchard.

Discography

The Baroque ensemble

recorded the totality of the work known to date ''a priori'' (three incomplete masses out of the four, the third being lost): * I : "Ave Maria": "Les Maîtres Baroques de Provence / Vol. I" - 1996 - Parnassie éditionsParnassie éditions
/ref>] * II : "Speciosa facta es" et IV : "Dominus tecum": "Les Maîtres Baroques de Provence / Vol. II" - 1999 - Parnassie éditions

References

External links

Messe 'Benedicta tu' : 4 voices
on Musicalics {{DEFAULTSORT:Poitevin, Guillaume 1646 births 1706 deaths 17th-century French Roman Catholic priests 17th-century French singers French Baroque composers French choral conductors French composers of sacred music French music educators