Sébastien de Brossard (1655-1730)
- Stabat Mater (1702)
Performers: Ensemble Éclats de France
Further info: Sébastien de Brossard (1655-1730) - Grands Motets
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French priest, theorist, composer, lexicographer and bibliophile. He was
descended from a family founded by Antoine de Brossard (c.1286-?), a
natural son of Charles de Valois and Hélène Broschart, daughter of the
king's treasurer. Sébastien was the last of a family of glass-blowers
from lower Normandy. He studied at the Jesuit college in Caen and then
attended that city's famous university, studying philosophy for two
years and theology for three. When he turned to music, therefore, he was
self-taught; he studied the lute, copying and composing pieces for the
instrument. He took minor orders in 1675 and became a sub-deacon the
next year, but the date when he became a priest is not known, nor is the
date of his arrival in Paris. He was living there in 1678, when he
published a secular piece in the Mercure galant under the name of
Robsard des Fontaines. He was thus working methodically on his music,
but still with books as his only teachers. He never found a permanent
post in Paris. In May 1687 he was appointed a vicar at Strasbourg
Cathedral, and soon afterwards became maître de chapelle there, when the
musician who had been offered the post, Mathieu Fourdaux, did not take
it up. In 1689, two years after his arrival in Strasbourg, the number of
cathedral musicians was cut, since the chapter had suffered financial
losses as a consequence of the war of the League of Augsburg. Brossard
founded an Académie de Musique, where he directed concerts of secular
music and French operas and ballets. During the time he spent in
Strasbourg he wrote his two books of motets and six books of airs,
including serious songs and drinking songs, and acquired a large part of
the music books and scores in his library. In December 1698 Brossard
left Strasbourg for Meaux, where he succeeded Pierre Tabart as maître de
chapelle of the cathedral; he was made a canon in 1709. On 1 August
1715 he resigned as maître de chapelle in favour of a former pupil, Jean
Cavignon, but he continued living in Meaux, where he was often
consulted on theoretical questions. He died there and was buried in the
cathedral. In 1724 Brossard, then entering his 70th year, feared that
his large and valuable library of music would be dispersed on his death;
he therefore offered it to the Bibliothèque Royale, asking for a
‘gratification’ in return. His offer was accepted, and the king's
librarian asked Brossard for the catalogue as well as the collection
itself. The collection is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, together
with the catalogue, which is more than simply a list of the books and
scores in the canon's library; most of the entries have additional
commentary, often providing information unavailable elsewhere.
