François Giroust (1737-1799)
- Super flumina Babylonis (1767)
Performers: Bernadette Degelin (soprano); Catherine Vandevelde
(soprano); Jean Nirouet (counter tenor);
Howard Crook (tenor); Michel
Verschaeve (bass); Chœur de chambre de Namur;
Musica Polyphonica; Louis
Devos (1926-2015, conductor)
Further info: François Giroust (1737-1799) - Benedic anima mea (1764)
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French composer. He was a member of the choir school of Notre Dame from
January 1745 until October 1756, where he studied with Louis Homet and
Antoine Goulet. As head boy he had two works performed on 17 June 1756:
the motet Lauda Jerusalem and a Magnificat. He was ordained and took
minor orders before leaving to become maître de musique at Orléans
Cathedral. Giroust also led the Académie de Musique in Orléans. Some
programmes survive from the ambitious weekly concerts he led (1764-65
and 1768-69). These usually included opera extracts (Rameau, Campra,
Mouret and others) and a grand motet – often by Giroust himself. At
least 22 of his motets date from this period, although most survive only
in later revisions. His works were first performed at the Concert
Spirituel in Paris in 1762. His Exaudi Deus, performed four times in
1764, was praised by Rameau, whom Giroust admired greatly. He
subsequently wrote a Dies irae for Rameau which was played at a memorial
service held in Orléans on 15 January 1765. For a contest sponsored by
the Concert Spirituel in 1768, Giroust submitted two settings of Super
flumina Babylonis. There were three finalists, and when Giroust was
revealed as the composer not only of the first prize, but also of a
specially demanded second prize, there was a great sensation. The second
setting was compared with the work of Pergolesi and it seems d’Alembert
and others supported it believing it to be by Philidor. For the next
seven years Giroust was the most frequently performed composer at the
Concert Spirituel, aside from the director, Dauvergne. In 1769 he became
maître de musique at Saints-Innocents in Paris. Two years later he
married Marie Françoise d’Avantois de Beaumont, a soprano at the Concert
Spirituel and Académie Royale who was related to the Archbishop of
Paris.
They had nine children; Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette stood, by proxy,
as godparents to the first child born in Versailles, Louisa Antoinette.
On 17 February 1775 Giroust replaced Gauzargues as sous maître de
chapelle at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles. He composed many motets
for the chapel, together with the Coronation Mass for Louis XVI and a
memorial Missa pro defunctis for Louis XV. On 16 June 1780 he purchased
the position of surintendant de musique, en survivance, from de Bury,
assuming the post in 1785. He retained the post of maître de chapelle,
to the chagrin of Le Sueur and others. Some secular works, including
masonic entertainments, date from this period. Giroust stayed in
Versailles after the fall of the monarchy in 1792 and, whether from fear
or desperation, threw in his lot with the Revolution. He conducted
nearly all the Revolutionary ceremonies in the city, and wrote over 50
songs, hymns and occasional pieces for them. Many were to texts by Félix
Nogaret, a fellow freemason and radical colleague of Robespierre. The
Chant des versaillais was performed for the National Convention and
circulated throughout the country, becoming his most famous work and one
of the best-known tunes of the Revolution (it survives in more than 50
versions and parodies). He suffered some financial hardship during this
time, but in May 1793 was given the modest post of concièrge at the
Château in Versailles, and in 1795 was awarded a government pension. On
13 February 1796 he became the first non-resident composer elected to
the Institut de France, joining Méhul, Gossec and Grétry. He was much
appreciated by the Commune of Versailles and received many tributes at
his death, although later he was criticized for his political
turn-around.
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