Jean Gilles (composer)

Biography

After receiving his musical training as a choirboy at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur at Aix-en-Provence, he succeeded his teacher Guillaume Poitevin as music master there. After moving on several times, he became music master at the Cathedral of St Etienne at Toulouse in 1697, as the successor of Andre Campra. His musical style was influenced by Campra, as were most musicians of his day. 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 the Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland in 1736, Jean-Philippe Rameau in 1764, and Louis XV in 1774. His motets were played frequently from 1728 to 1771 at the Concert Spirituel.

His choral works often alternate passages sung by the soloists with those sung by the chorus. In 1752, in Lettres sur les hommes celebres du regne de Louis XIV, Pierre-Louis d'Aquin said that Gilles would doubtless have replaced Lalande if he had lived long enough. Gilles died suddenly at the age of 37 in Toulouse.

Works

Selected recordings

The Requiem is one of the most frequently recorded of all French baroque works. Recordings include two early recordings conducted by Louis Fremaux (1957) and (1965), 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 Koln for Archiv (1981) the second with La Chapelle Royale for Harmonia Mundi (1990). Other recordings include the Boston Camerata directed by Joel Cohen (1989), Le Concert Spirituel and Herve Niquet (2000), and Les Passions directed by flautist Jean-Marc Andrieu (3 differents recording in 2007, 2009, 2012 and a pack of 3 CD in 2013).