Jacques Champion de Chambonnières
Born into a musical family, Chambonnières made an illustrious career as court harpsichordist in Paris and was considered by many of his contemporaries to be one of the greatest musicians in Europe.
[1] Already by 1611 Chambonnières must have been showing considerable musical talents, for in September of that year he received the reversion of his father's court position.
He continued receiving generous financial support from his father until some time in the mid-1620s, when Jacques Champion's wife unexpectedly gave birth to two more children: a daughter (Louise) and another son (Nicolas, or Jehan-Nicolas).
Jacques, apparently mindful of both the diminishing family fortune and his elder son's selfish character, sought to distribute the remaining money and resources in a fair manner.
The earliest relevant notarial act, from 17 October 1641, specifies that ten musicians were to perform every Wednesday and Saturday at noon for a year.
[1] Chambonnières augmented his income also by teaching, eventually becoming an important influence on the subsequent development of the French harpsichord school, as well as composers abroad, such as Johann Jakob Froberger.
About 1650/51 Louis Couperin and his brothers gave a small private concert at Chambonnières's Le Plessis-Feu-Aussoux manor, to celebrate the older composer's name day.
Their playing and their music (which was composed by Louis) so impressed Chambonnières that he extended all kinds of support to the Couperins and the three soon had active careers in Paris.
Chambonnières's dancing career continued, too: on 23 February 1653 he danced in the Ballet royal de la nuit, side by side with the young Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Lully, and on 14 April 1654 he participated in the ballet inserted into Carlo Caproli's opera Le nozze di Peleo e di Theti.
The first serious losses, however, must have occurred in 1657, when a lawsuit was brought that resulted in the sale of Chambonnières's manor and land at Le Plessis-Feu-Aussoux, for a comparatively small sum.
Many decades later Évrard Titon du Tillet described a plot that existed at the court to remove Chambonnières from his position and replace him with Louis Couperin.
He and his wife were still living together despite her earlier activities; his court position was constantly under threat from what he called, in a letter, a "low and evil clique", and his pension was cut off, apparently by the same people.
According to violist Jean Rousseau, Chambonnières's contemporary, the composer was obliged to resign since he could not execute basso continuo accompaniment.
After his retirement, Chambonnières must have continued to perform in order to make a living, but only a single record of a concert survives, that for 1 November 1665 at the Duchess of Orleans' salon.
[1] Due to lack of manuscript sources, little is known about French harpsichord music of the first half of the 17th century, and Chambonnières emerges as the sole major composer of the time with a large surviving oeuvre.
Sixty were published by the composer himself in 1670 in two volumes of Les pièces de clavessin, and the rest are known through some 20 manuscript sources, most of which were discovered only in the mid- and late 20th century.
