Jean-Marie Leclair

The French violinist and composer Jean-Marie Leclair (also known as “the elder” to tell apart him from a younger brother who passed the same name) is remembered for a highly effective synthesis of his own Parisian musical heritage using the Italian sonata style brought into vogue by Corelli. Given birth to in 1697 to a French lacemaker and cellist, Leclair was regarded as a grasp of both violin and his father’s lacemaking trade by enough time he reached adulthood. His skill like a dancer gained him a posture using the Lyons Opera (1716 or simply a little previously), and within the next few years it really is possible that he either resided in or was a regular visitor to Paris (an assumption scholars foundation on the 1721 Parisian musical publication including ten of Leclair’s violin sonatas). By 1723 Leclair experienced confident Joseph Bonnier, among France’s wealthiest aristocrats, to create his Opus 1 assortment of violin sonatas, that have been received with great admiration from the Parisian musical establishment. Around 1726 Leclair discovered his method to Turin to review with violinist-composer G.B. Somis, aswell concerning compose ballet interludes (right now dropped) for opera productions in the Teatro Regio Ducale. Another opus of violin sonatas was released in 1728, and throughout that same 12 months Leclair produced his debut like a violinist in the Concert Spirituel. Shows of his personal music in London, Kassel (where Leclair involved in a musical “duel” with famous Italian violinist Pietro Locatelli) and Paris gained Leclair a status among the leading numbers of the brand new French college of violinist-composers. Formal acknowledgement arrived in 1733 with a scheduled appointment towards the musical courtroom of Louis XV, to whom Leclair devoted his third opus of violin sonatas like a screen of appreciation. Leclair divided his time taken between several courtroom appointments for the rest of the years of his lifestyle, including positions on the Hague, on the courtroom of Orange in holland, and in the program from the Duke of Gramont (a previous pupil from the composer). The state analysis of Leclair’s dubious loss of life in 1767 incriminated both his nephew and his second wife (the few had resided in different households since 1758), but neither was ever officially charged along with his murder. Leclair got the Italian sonata da chiesa as well as the sonata da camcorder and infused them with a stylistic style derived largely through the ballet music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Fittingly, he constructed almost solely for the violin (he do compose one opera in 1746, however the function never inserted the Parisian repertory). His significance being a teacher from the violin, nevertheless, is perhaps higher than his put in place the history of structure: using a string of pupils including significant French violinists L’abbé le fils, Jean-Josephe Rudolphe, and Pierre Gaviniès, Leclair can really be called the daddy of the present day French violin college.