Marin Marais

Marin Marais was a choirboy with Michel-Richard de Lalande at Saint-Germain-L’Auxerrois choir school in Paris. He was the son of a humble family of shoemakers. He learnt to play the viola da gamba with the reputed yet sombre and mysterious music master Monsieur de Saint-Colombe who must have felt threatened by the young musician’s talent as he reputedly told him after six months that he could no longer teach him anything. Marais then approached the all-powerful Lully who let him join the orchestra of the Académie Royale de Musique (the first Paris opera) alongside the select continuo players. In 1678, Louis XIV conferred upon him the status of Violinist in Ordinary with the Music of the King’s Chamber. In 1686 he published his first collection of viola scores, followed by 4 others in 1701, 1711, 1717 and 1725. They represent the largest corpus of harpsichord music ever published in France and he soon acquired leadership status. On the death of Superintendent Lully in 1687, his musicians, freed from his stranglehold, were able to compose and have their works performed more easily. In 1693 Marin Marais wrote his first opera Alcide in collaboration with Lully’s son. He often played the viola da gamba for Louis XIV at court. He was appointed conductor of the Opera in about 1704, for which he composed (amongst others) Alcyone, his very successful tragédie en musique.