Moreau, Jean-Baptiste
Moreau, Jean-Baptiste
Moreau, Jean-Baptiste, French composer; b. Angers, 1656; d. Paris, Aug. 24,1733. He was a chorister at Angers Cathedral, then was maître de musique at the cathedrals of Langres (1681–82) and Dijon. By Jan. 1687 he was in Paris. He was introduced at the French court by the Dauphine, and was commissioned by Louis XIV to write several divertissements, among them Les Bergers de Marly (1687). He won great success with his musical interludes (recitatives and choruses) for Racine’s Esther (1698) and Athalie (1691), performed at the school for young noblewomen at St.-Cyr, where he was musicien ordinaire. He also wrote music for Racine’s Cantiques spirituels, for performance at St.-Cyr. His success at court was marred by his dissolute habits; however, he was greatly esteemed as a teacher of singing and composition, numbering among his pupils Montéclair, J.F. Dandrieu, Clérambault, and the singers Louise Couperin and his own daughter Marie-Claude Moreau. The music to Esther and Athalie, and the Cantiques spirituels, were publ. in the music supplement to P. Mesnard’s OEuvres de j. Racine (Paris, 1873).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire