Nicolas Gigault

Gigault was born into poverty and his financial situation remained dire at least until 1648, when he and his two younger brothers renounced their rights of succession to avoid their father's debts.

Gigault's youngest daughter Emérentienne-Margueritte married an organ-builder and one of her two children, Augustin-Hypolite Ducastel, became a harpsichord-builder.

The inventories of Gigault's possessions, taken in 1662 and in 1700 (on the account of his marriage and his wife's death, respectively), reveal that already by 1662 he was no longer poor and could afford a well-furnished home with a collection of paintings and sculptures, and a large number of musical instruments: a chamber organ, two harpsichords (one with two manuals, the other with one), three spinets, two clavichords, a bass viol, two treble viols, a theorbo and a guitar.

The first, Livre de musique dédié а la Très Saincte Vierge of 1682, contains the earliest known examples of the French noël (a set of variations on a Christmas carol) and an allemande.

It is presented in two versions, the second being set in "ports de voix", showing various common ornamentation patterns.

The rest of the collection is arranged by mode: there are numerous fugues (a fact mentioned in the preface) and also various typical French forms such as dialogues and récits.

Also included are three hymns: Pange lingua, Veni Creator and a complete setting of the Te Deum.

Because the music of Gigault's second Livre is more representative of the French style of the third quarter of the century, rather than the last,[16] the collection may have been a compilation of earlier composed material.

[17][18] Nevertheless, the music is distinguished by a serious style, more suitable to the church than that of Lebègue;[19] Gigault's dialogues go beyond those of his contemporaries, Nivers and Lebègue, in that they employ more divisions, and he also cultivates a number of five-voice genres: préludes and récits with pedal cantus firmus in the tenor.