While very young, he learned to play the violin and harpsichord and he studied the organ with André Raison.

Clérambault became the organist at the church of the Grands-Augustins and entered the service of Madame de Maintenon.

After the death of Louis XIV and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, he succeeded the latter at the organ of the church of Saint-Sulpice and the royal house of Saint-Cyr, an institution for young girls from the poor nobility.

It was in this post—it remained his after the death of Madame de Maintenon—that he developed the genre of the "French cantata" of which he was the uncontested master.

His Motet du Saint Sacrement in G major is one of the first French works known to have been performed in Philadelphia.