Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689 – 1755) was a
French baroque composer of instrumental music,
cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier
was one of the first composers to have no patrons:
having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in
1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his
music for sale to the public. The Boismortier family
moved from the composer's birthplace in Thionville (in
Lorraine) to the town of Metz where he received his
musical education from Jose...(+)
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689 – 1755) was a
French baroque composer of instrumental music,
cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier
was one of the first composers to have no patrons:
having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in
1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his
music for sale to the public. The Boismortier family
moved from the composer's birthplace in Thionville (in
Lorraine) to the town of Metz where he received his
musical education from Joseph Valette de Montigny, a
well-known composer of motets. The Boismortier family
then followed Montigny and moved to Perpignan in 1713
where Boismortier found employment in the Royal Tobacco
Control.
Boismortier married Marie Valette, the daughter of a
rich goldsmith and a relative of his teacher Montigny.
In 1724 Boismortier and his wife moved to Paris where
he began a prodigious composition career, writing for
many instruments and voices. He was prolific: his first
works appeared in Paris in 1724, and by 1747 he had
published more than 100 works in various vocal and
instrumental combinations. His music, particularly for
the voice, was extremely popular and made him wealthy
without the aid of patrons.
Boismortier was the first French composer to use the
Italian concerto form, in his six concertos for five
flutes op. 15. (1727). He also wrote the first French
solo concerto for any instrument, a concerto for cello,
viol, or bassoon (1729). Much of his music is for the
flute, for which he also wrote an instruction method
(now lost). Boismortier and Rameau both lived during
the Rococo era of Louis XV and upheld the French
tradition, composing music of beauty and sophistication
that was widely appreciated. Although known as a
composer, Bodin de Boismortier was also famed during
his lifetime for his excessively inattentive and
wandering mind that often kept him from conducting his
own works.
His six sonatas for flute and harpsichord op. 91, first
published in Paris in 1742, were printed with an homage
to the celebrated French flautist and composer, Michel
Blavet (1700-1768). Today, they are probably his most
popular pieces, for they indeed show Boismortier at his
most creative and graceful. A notable piece of
Boismortier's that is still often performed is the
Deuxieme serenade ou simphonie. He died in
Roissy-en-Brie, where, at his request, he was buried in
the Eglise Saint Germain.
The playwright and novelist Suzanne Bodin de
Boismortier was his daughter. A full-length biography
on the composer, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, by
Stephan Perreau, was published in France in 2001.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Adrien_Boi
eldieu).
Although originally written for Treble Recorder,
Violin, Oboe, Bassoon and Continuo, I created this
arrangement of the Concerto in E Minor (Op. 37 No. 6)
for Woodwind Quintet (Flute, Oboe, English Horn, French
Horn & Bassoon).
SHEET MUSIC