Jean Gilles (8 January 1668 – 5 February 1705) was a French composer, born at

Tarascon Tarascon (; ), sometimes referred to as Tarascon-sur-Rhône, is a commune situated at the extreme west of the Bouches-du-Rhône department of France in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Inhabitants are referred to as Tarasconnais or Tara ...

Biography

After receiving his musical training as a

choirboy A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble. As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" (also derisively) refers to someone who is considered honor ...

at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur at

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

, he succeeded his teacher Guillaume Poitevin as music master there. After moving on several times, he became music master at the Cathedral of St Etienne at

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

in 1697, as the successor of

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 ...

. His musical style was influenced by Campra, as were most musicians of his day. He composed motets and a famous

requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...

, which was performed for the first time at his own funeral (because the original commissioner thought it too expensive to perform) but was later sung at the funeral services for

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of ...

in 1764, Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland in 1766, and

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

in 1774. His motets were played frequently from 1728 to 1771 at the

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel () was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts with the same name occurred in multiple places including Paris, Vienna ...

. His choral works often alternate passages sung by the soloists with those sung by the chorus. In 1752, in ''Lettres sur les hommes célèbres du règne de Louis XIV'', Pierre-Louis d'Aquin said that Gilles would doubtless have replaced Lalande if he had lived long enough. Gilles died suddenly at the age of 37 in

Works

Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...

(1705) *Mass *Te Deum *24 grands motets *5 motets for grand choeur *3 psalms *10 airs for solo voices, transcribed from the grands motets. *

Leçons de ténèbres Leçons de ténèbres ( 'lessons of darkness'; sometimes spelled Leçons des ténèbres) is a genre of French Baroque music which developed from the polyphonic lamentations settings for the tenebrae service of Renaissance composers such as Sermi ...

Selected recordings

The ''Requiem'' is one of the most frequently recorded of all French baroque works. Recordings include two early recordings conducted by

Louis Frémaux Louis Joseph Félix Frémaux (13 August 1921 – 20 March 2017) was a French conductor. Life and career Frémaux was born in Aire-sur-la-Lys, France and came from an artistic background; his father was a painter, and his wife was a music teac ...

(1957) and (1965), then two landmark recordings conducted by

Philippe Herreweghe Philippe Maria François Herreweghe, Knight Herreweghe (born 2 May 1947) is a Belgian conductor and choirmaster. Herreweghe founded La Chapelle Royale and Collegium Vocale Gent and is renowned as a conductor, with a repertoire ranging from ...

- the first paired with the ''Carillon des morts'' of

Michel Corrette Michael Corrette (10 April 1707 – 21 January 1795) was a French composer, organist and author of musical method books. Life Corrette’s father, Gaspard Corrette, was an organist and composer. Little is known of his early life. In 1726, ...

(1709-1795) performed by the Collegium Vocale Gent and

Musica Antiqua Köln Musica Antiqua Köln was an early music group that was founded in 1973 by Reinhard Goebel and fellow students from the Conservatory of Music in Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhin ...

for Archiv (1981)Archiv 2533 461 the second with La Chapelle Royale for

Harmonia Mundi Harmonia Mundi is a record label that specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group, which is itself owned by Universal M ...

(1990). Other recordings include the

Boston Camerata The Boston Camerata is an early music ensemble based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1954 by Narcissa Williamson, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as an adjunct to that museum's musical instrument collection. The Camerata incorpora ...

directed by Joel Cohen (1989), Le Concert Spirituel and

Hervé Niquet Hervé Niquet (born 28 October 1957) is a French conductor, harpsichordist, tenor, and the director of Le Concert Spirituel, specializing in French Baroque music. Biography Born on 28 October 1957, Hervé Niquet was raised at Abbeville in ...

(2000), and

Les Passions Les Passions is a Baroque orchestra. Created in 1986 by the recorder player Jean-Marc Andrieu, the orchestra is in residence in the south-west French town of Montauban. This ensemble specialises in the practice of period instruments. Its artistic ...

directed by Jean-Marc Andrieu (3 different recordings in 2007, 2009, 2012 and a pack of 3 CDs in 2013), Les Folies françoises, Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles conducted by Fabien Armengaud, CD CVS 2023.

References

Grove Music Online
, article "Jean Gilles" *''Dictionnaire de la musique en France'', Marcelle Benoit, ed. (Paris: Fayard, 1992) *Biography, in English: John Hajdu Heyer: "Jean Gilles (1668–1705): a Biography," in ''Musicology at the University of Colorado'', ed. W. Kearns (Boulder, CO, 1977), pp. 80–94. *Biography, in French: M. Prada: ''Jean Gilles: l’homme et l’oeuvre'' (Béziers, 1986) *Thematic catalogue: ''Catalogue thématique des sources du grand motet français'' (1663–1792),

Jean Mongrédien Jean Mongrédien (19 June 1932 – 16 March 2025) was a French musicologist. Life and career Mongrédien was born in Paris on 19 June 1932, the son of . A specialist of music of France of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and especially ...

, ed., (Munich, 1984)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilles, Jean 1668 births 1705 deaths French Baroque composers French composers of sacred music French male classical composers People from Tarascon 17th-century French male musicians