Henry Desmarest (1661-1741)
- Motet // Te Deum Laudamus // de mons.r Desmarest (c.1707)
Performers: Eugénie Lеfеbvre (soprano); Jehanne Amzаl (soprano); Clément
Dеbiеuvre (haute-contre);
François Jοrοn (tenor); David Witczаk
(baritone); Etienne Bаzola (baritone);
Ensemble Les Surprisеs; Louis-Noël Bеstion de Cаmboulаs (conductor)
Further info: Henry Desmarest (1661-1741) - Confitebor tibi (1707)
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French composer. Little is known of his early musical life other than
that he was one of the boy pages of Louis XIV’s musical establishment.
There, directly under the influence of Pierre Robert and Henry Du Mont
at an important period in the development of the grand motet, he
probably also encountered Lully, who used the chapel pages to augment
his performances. In 1680 he was referred to as an ‘ordinaire de la
musique du Roy’. Titon du Tillet mentioned an idylle written by him for
the birth of the Duke of Burgundy in 1682; this was a form to which he
would regularly return. He was unsuccessful in a contest in 1683 for a
post as sous-maître at the royal chapel, but later got himself involved
in writing motets for one of the successful competitors, Goupillet, to
pass off as his own. The deception was not revealed until 1693 when
Desmarest, complaining that he had not been paid sufficiently, exposed
Goupillet. He gravitated increasingly towards secular forms of
composition. It seems that he wanted to study in Italy but this plan was
thwarted by Lully. Some measure of court favour can be inferred from
the private performance of his first opera, Endymion, which took place
over several days in the king’s apartments, one or two acts at a time,
in February 1686, and pleased the dauphine so much that she commanded
another performance a few days later. Writing for the stage of the
Académie was barred to Desmarest at the time since Lully enjoyed a
complete monopoly; the gap left by his untimely death in March 1687
began to be filled only tentatively by the next generation. Du Tralage
cynically declared that 'Didon' (1693), one of Desmarest’ earliest
surviving tragédies en musique, succeeded with the public because it was
copied from Lully, that 'Circé' (1694), less closely modelled on Lully,
was less successful, and that 'Théagène' (1695), in which the composer
went his own way, was not successful at all.
When he began work on another opera, 'Vénus et Adonis', in 1695, he was
apparently in dispute with Collasse over who should set Duché de Vancy's
'Iphigénie en Tauride'; this was to be left unfinished by Desmarest and
completed by André Campra in 1704. Within months of the death of his
first wife in August 1696, he had fallen in love with his pupil, the
18-year-old daughter of Jacques de Saint-Gobert, director of taxation
for Senlis. The upshot was a long legal battle, at the end of which in
August 1699 the couple fled the country, Desmarest being condemned to
death in his absence. The composer began his exile in Brussels. His
friend and fellow chapel page, the composer Jean-Baptiste Matho,
obtained a letter of recommendation for him from the Duke of Burgundy to
the new King of Spain, Philip V, and he moved to the Spanish court in
1701 and married Mlle de Saint-Gobert. Six years later, again with
support from connections in France, he secured an appointment as
surintendant de la musique at the court of Lorraine, which was closely
modelled on the court of Louis XIV, his duties encompassing both
religious and secular music. Although he mounted a production of his
own, Vénus et Adonis for the court at Lunéville in 1707, Desmarest’
operatic activities focussed chiefly on revivals of operas by Lully at
both Lunéville and Nancy. During this time he continued to write
occasional pieces and motets. However favourable the musical climate in
Lorraine, he hoped to be allowed to return to France. A petition to
Louis XIV on his behalf by Matho in 1712 was rejected, but he was
finally pardoned by the regent in 1720. When Michel-Richard de Lalande
died in 1726, he sought his post of sous-maître, but was unsuccessful.
His wife died in the following year and he ended his days in Lorraine.
