André Cardinal Destouches
Encyclopedia
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
6 April 1672 – 7 February 1749) was a French composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
best known for the opéra-ballet
Opéra-ballet
Opéra-ballet was a popular genre of French Baroque opera, "that grew out of the ballets à entrées of the early seventeeth century". It differed from the more elevated tragédie en musique as practised by Jean-Baptiste Lully in several ways...
Les élémens
Les élémens
Les élémens , or Ballet des élémens, is an opera-ballet by the French composers André Cardinal Destouches and Michel Richard Delalande . It has a prologue and four entrées. The libretto was written by Pierre-Charles Roy.Destouches was responsible for most of the music...
.
Born in Paris, the son of Étienne Cardinal, a wealthy merchant, André Cardinal was educated by Jesuits. With the Jesuit Father Guy Tachard
Guy Tachard
Guy Tachard , also known as Père Tachard, was a French Jesuit missionary and mathematician of the 17th century, who was sent on two occasions to the Kingdom of Siam by Louis XIV...
, he went on a mission to Siam for two years, leaving in January 1687, and spending some time at the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in Siam in September. Coming back to France, in September 1688, he spent several months at the academy in the Manège royale, rue de Tournon. In 1692 he joined the army and participated in the invasion of Namur
Namur (province)
Namur is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and on France. Its capital is the city of Namur...
, discovering his musical talent while not occupied by combat. When his father died in August 1694, André Cardinal added "Destouches" to his name in memory of his father's title, Seigneur des Touches et de Guilleville. He quit the army in 1696 to pursue his musical aspirations.
Destouches' opera Issé
Issé (opera)
Issé is a operatic pastorale héroïque by the French composer André Cardinal Destouches. It has a prologue and three acts. The libretto was by Antoine Houdar de la Motte.-Performance history:...
was performed for Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
at the Trianon
Grand Trianon
The Grand Trianon was built in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles at the request of Louis XIV, as a retreat for the King and his maîtresse en titre of the time, the marquise de Montespan, and as a place where the King and invited guests could take light meals away from the strict...
in 1697. Louis was impressed and said that he enjoyed his music as much as that of Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
. The opera was successfully repeated at the Opéra a few weeks later. The following year found him dining with Boileau
Boileau
Boileau can refer to:Persons:*Boileau-Narcejac, pen name of Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud, also known as Thomas Narcejac, French writers of police stories*Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, 17th century French writer...
in the company of Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
.
After a series of successful operas and the commencement of his successful collaboration with the librettist Pierre-Charles Roy
Pierre-Charles Roy
Pierre-Charles Roy was a French poet and man of letters, noted for his collaborations with the composers François Francoeur and André Cardinal Destouches, to produce librettos for several opera-ballets, on classical subjects or pseudo-classical pastiches, for seven tragedies, and for his rivalry...
, in 1713 the king appointed Destouches inspector general of the Académie Royale de Musique
Académie Royale de Musique
The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...
, at a stipend of 4000 livres a year; later, in 1725 Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
would appoint him superintendent of chamber music for the Chambre du Roi
Chambre du Roi
La chambre du roi , the King's Bedchamber, has always been the central feature of the king's apartment in traditional French palace design Ceremonies surrounding the daily life of the king — such as the levée and the coucher — were conducted in the...
, and then Director of the Académie. Under the Régence
Régence
The Régence is the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by a Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV of France....
, as Destouches' operas were revived at the Opéra, Destouches was able to purchase the terroir of La Vaudoire at Sartrouville
Sartrouville
Sartrouville is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. it is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris from the center.-Name:...
, conveniently close to Paris. The young Louis XV danced in Destouches' ballet Les élémens
Les élémens
Les élémens , or Ballet des élémens, is an opera-ballet by the French composers André Cardinal Destouches and Michel Richard Delalande . It has a prologue and four entrées. The libretto was written by Pierre-Charles Roy.Destouches was responsible for most of the music...
at the Tuileries, 31 December 1721, and the aged Destouches led the musicians for his daughters' masked ball on 13 January 1744. With the beginning of the public Concerts Spirituels
Concert Spirituel
The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...
in Paris, Destouches performed his De Profundis (1725) and his cantata Sémélé (1728) and motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
for large chorus O dulcis Jesu (also 1728); Queen Maria Leszczyńska
Maria Leszczynska
Marie Leszczyńska was a queen consort of France. She was a daughter of King Stanisław Leszczyński of Poland and Catherine Opalińska. She married King Louis XV of France and was the grandmother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. In France, she was referred to as Marie Leczinska...
commanded Destouches to recreate the concert series at the Tuileries. With the death of Michel Richard Delalande
Michel Richard Delalande
Michel Richard Delalande [de Lalande] was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grand motets. He also wrote orchestral suites known as "Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy" and ballets...
in 1726, Destouches assumed control of the Musique du Roi.
In 1724 he married Anne-Antoinette de Reynold de la Ferrière. He was buried in the crypt of Saint-Roch
Église Saint-Roch
The Church of Saint Roch is a late Baroque church in Paris. Located at 284 rue Saint-Honoré, in the 1st arrondissement, it was built between 1653 and 1722.- History :...
, Paris.
Works
- IsséIssé (opera)Issé is a operatic pastorale héroïque by the French composer André Cardinal Destouches. It has a prologue and three acts. The libretto was by Antoine Houdar de la Motte.-Performance history:...
(pastorale héroïquePastorale héroïquePastorale héroïque was a type of ballet héroïque, a form of the opéra-ballet genre of French Baroque opera. The first work to bear the name was Jean-Baptiste Lully's final completed opera Acis et Galatée , although musical works on pastoral themes had already appeared on the French stage...
), libretto by Antoine Houdar de la MotteAntoine Houdar de la MotteAntoine Houdar de la Motte was a French author.He was born and died in Paris. In 1693 his comedy, Les Originaux, was a complete failure, and so depressed the author that he contemplated joining the Trappists. Four years later he began writing texts for operas and ballets, e.g...
(1697, in five acts 1708) Issé played at WolfenbüttelWolfenbüttelWolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...
(in German) and The HagueThe HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. - Amadis de Grèce (tragédie en musique), libretto by La Motte (27 March 1699)
- Marthésie (tragédie en musique), libretto by La Motte (29 November 1699)
- Omphale (tragédie en musique), libretto by La Motte (10 November 1701)
- Le carnaval et la folie (comédie-balletComédie-balletComédie-ballet is a genre of French drama which mixes a spoken play with interludes containing music and dance.-History:The first example of the genre is considered to be Les fâcheux, with words by Molière, performed in honour of Louis XIV at Vaux-le-Vicomte, the residence of Nicolas Fouquet, in...
), libretto by La Motte (3 January 1704) - CallirhoéCallirhoéCallirhoé is an opera by the French composer André Cardinal Destouches. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. The libretto, by Pierre-Charles Roy, is based on a story from The Description of Greece by Pausanias . The opera was first performed at the Académie royale...
(tragédie en musique), libretto by Pierre-Charles RoyPierre-Charles RoyPierre-Charles Roy was a French poet and man of letters, noted for his collaborations with the composers François Francoeur and André Cardinal Destouches, to produce librettos for several opera-ballets, on classical subjects or pseudo-classical pastiches, for seven tragedies, and for his rivalry...
(27 December 1712) - Télémache (tragédie en musique), libretto by the abbé Simon-Joseph PellegrinSimon-Joseph PellegrinThe abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a French poet and playwright, a librettist who collaborated with Jean-Philippe Rameau and other composers.-Biography:...
(20 November 1714) - Oenone (cantataCantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
), (February 1716) - Sémiramis (tragédie en musique), libretto by Pierre-Charles Roy (7 December 1718)
- Les élémensLes élémensLes élémens , or Ballet des élémens, is an opera-ballet by the French composers André Cardinal Destouches and Michel Richard Delalande . It has a prologue and four entrées. The libretto was written by Pierre-Charles Roy.Destouches was responsible for most of the music...
(opéra-balletOpéra-balletOpéra-ballet was a popular genre of French Baroque opera, "that grew out of the ballets à entrées of the early seventeeth century". It differed from the more elevated tragédie en musique as practised by Jean-Baptiste Lully in several ways...
), in collaboration with Delalande, libretto by Roy (1721) - Les stratagèmes de l'amour (ballet), libretto by Roy (26 March 1726)