Laurent Belissen (also ''Bellissen''; 8 August 1693 – 12 February 1762) was a French

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

composer. He was born in

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 ...

and may have been among the last students of Guillaume Poitevin, then ''maître de musique'' at the choir school of 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 ...

. By 1722 Belissen settled in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, where he succeeded Antoine Blanchard as ''maître de musique'' of the Abbey of St. Victor, which was then rapidly declining in importance—but he also secured a position directing the city's Académie de Concerts. Belissen remained in Marseilles until his death. Much of Belissen's music is either lost or remains uncatalogued. His four ''grands motets'' adopt a style radically different from what contemporary

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

composers used: Belissen uses four voices instead of five, and his style successfully combines Italian and French traits. One

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

survives incomplete, and at least two more are presumed lost, similarly to other ''grands motets'', Magnificat settings, Lamentations, etc.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belissen, Laurent Musicians from Aix-en-Provence French Baroque composers French composers of sacred music French male classical composers 1693 births 1762 deaths 18th-century French classical composers 18th-century French male musicians