André Danican Philidor (c.1652-1730)
- Concert de Hautbois (1680)
Performers: La symphonie du Mаrаis; Hugο Rеynе (conductor)
Engraving: Basset (18th Century) - Gezicht op het Stadhuis te Parijs met een stoet ter afkondiging van de vrede
Further info: Marches, Fêtes Et Chasses pour Louis XIV
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French music librarian, composer and instrumentalist, son of Jean
Danican Philidor. The date of his birth is unknown, but his death
certificate gave his age as ‘approximately 78’. In 1659 he was named to
the position formerly held by Michel Danican in the Cromornes et
Trompettes Marines and from 1667 to 1677 he served as hautbois in the
royal musketeers. From 1670 his name appears in librettos of Lully’s
ballets and operas as a performer on a number of woodwind and percussion
instruments. In 1678 he was named a drummer in the Fifres et Tambours
and he was appointed to the prestigious 12 Grands Hautbois du Roi in
1681; from 1682 he served as ordinaire de la musique de la chapelle and
in 1690 he and three other wind players officially joined the Petits
Violons. As a member of these ensembles Philidor played for military
ceremonies, balls, theatrical works and services in the royal chapel,
and also took part in military campaigns. Although Philidor l’aîné
probably composed occasional pieces (marches, signal airs, dances etc.)
throughout his career, he did not begin to compose for the stage until
after Lully’s death in 1687. A flurry of compositional activity in
1687-68 suggests that he may have been trying to position himself as a
candidate for Lully’s post of surintendant of the king’s music, but in
1689 the position went to Michel-Richard de Lalande. During the carnival
season of 1700, Philidor, his nephew Pierre and his son Anne composed a
number of divertissements for performance at Marly, largely for the
entertainment of the Duchess of Burgundy, wife of the king’s eldest
grandson.
Philidor l’aîné married twice; by his first marriage in 1672 to
Marguerite Mouginot he had 17 children, among whom were Alexandre
Danican Philidor (1676-1684), who despite his tender age held a post
among the Cromornes et Trompettes Marines from 1679-83, Anne Danican
Philidor (1681-1728), Michel Danican Philidor (1683-1723), a timpanist
to the king and godson of Michel-Richard de Lalande, and François
Danican Philidor (1689-1717), a flautist who composed two volumes of
Pièces pour la flûte traversière (Paris, 1716 and 1718) and who is often
confused with his cousin of the same name. By his second marriage in
1719 to Elisabeth Leroy he had six children, including François-André
Danican Philidor (1726-1795). Philidor l’aîné is best remembered for his
work as the king’s music librarian, in which capacity he presided over
an enormous effort to collect and preserve music not only from Louis
XIV’s reign, but as far back as that of Henri IV. 1684 is often cited
(without documentation) as the year of his appointment, but in 1694
Philidor himself claimed that he had been working as music librarian for
30 years. (The earliest known score he copied for the royal library is
dated 1681.) Philidor shared the post with the violinist François
Fossard until the latter’s death in 1702 and thereafter occupied it
alone. Although Philidor had a number of assistants, he himself copied
dozens of volumes. The dedications to the king in the series of Lully
ballets he prepared reveal his consciousness of the historical value of
his work. In addition to his work for the king, Philidor copied music
for other aristocratic and royal patrons. In 1694 he and Fossard were
granted a privilege to print some of the music from the king’s
collection, but they published only a single anthology of Airs italiens
(Paris, 1695). Philidor had intended that his son Anne succeed him as
music librarian, but it was his son-in-law Jean-Louis Schwartzenberg,
known as Le Noble, who took up the post.
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