Jean Gilles (8 January 1668 – 5 February 1705) was a French composer, born at Tarascon.
After moving on several times, he became music master at the Cathedral of St Etienne at Toulouse in 1697, as the successor of André Campra.
He composed motets and a famous requiem, which was performed for the first time at his own funeral (because the original commissioner thought it too expensive to perform) but was later sung at the funeral services for Jean-Philippe Rameau in 1764, Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland in 1766, and Louis XV in 1774.
In 1752, in Lettres sur les hommes célèbres du règne de Louis XIV, Pierre-Louis d'Aquin said that Gilles would doubtless have replaced Lalande if he had lived long enough.
Recordings include two early recordings conducted by Louis Frémaux (1957)[2] and (1965),[3] then two landmark recordings conducted by Philippe Herreweghe - the first paired with the Carillon des morts of Michel Corrette (1709-1795) performed by the Collegium Vocale Gent and Musica Antiqua Köln for Archiv (1981)[4] the second with La Chapelle Royale for Harmonia Mundi (1990).