Луи Маршан: Жизнь и творчество французского органиста и клавесиниста.

the French music theorist
Napoleon Bonaparte's valet

Louis Marchand (2 February 1669 – 17 February 1732) was a French organist, harpsichordist and composer. Born into an organist's family, Marchand was a child prodigy and quickly established himself as one of the best known French virtuosos of his time. He worked as organist of numerous churches and, for a few years, as one of the four organistes du roy. Marchand had a violent temperament and an arrogant personality, and his life was filled with scandals, publicized and widely discussed both during his lifetime and after his death. Despite his fame, few of his works survive to this day, and those that do almost all date from his early years. Nevertheless, a few pieces of his, such as the organ pieces Grand dialogue and Fond d'orgue have been lauded as classic works of the French organ school.

Comparatively few works by Marchand survive, most of them dating from the early stages of his career. The most numerous and arguably most important are his organ works. The twelve that were published by the Boivin atelier in 1740 are likely to be a reproduction of a book of organ pieces that were published in January 1700, of which no extant copies are known. A further 42 pieces are to be found in a manuscript that was housed in the Bibliothèque royale at Versailles. These pieces include a number of important pieces: the massive Grand Dialogue (1696), a harmonically adventurous Fond d'orgue, the Quatuor, a four part fugue that was quintessential to French organist composers, and a Plein jeu with a canon in double pedals. Modern scholar Geoffrey Sharp divided Marchand's organ oeuvre into three distinct groups: pieces influenced by vocal genres, pieces influenced by instrumental genres, and vocal instrumental hybrid works. He singles out Marchand's organ trios and non contrapuntal works as the composer's most successful pieces. The extant pieces for harpsichord are contained in two suites. The first was originally published 'chez l'auteur' in 1699 with plates engraved by Claude Roussel. It was reissued in 1702 under the auspices of Christophe Ballard as Livre Premier; a Livre Second was published simultaneously. Stylistically, the suites are disparate. Livre Premier begins with a measured prélude that is more reminiscent of Frescobaldi than any French paradigm, yet the dances are distinctly in le goût français; Livre Second begins with a prélude non mesuré yet its accompanying dances look forward to a more italianate style. In addition are two attributions in a Ballard publication of 1707 Pièces choisies pour le clavecin de différents auteurs: La Vénitienne and La Bandine. In 2005, a recording was released of a manuscript entitled Livre de Suittes pour le clavecin composé par Monsieur de Charman(t) [sic] cordelier, et arrangé par Renard, à Paris, 1754. This came to light in a private music collection in 2003 and reputedly contains a collection of pieces by Marchand in C major and minor. We are told that the current owners have no desire for the disclosure of their details or for its contents to be made available to scholars and musicians. No other reference to the works is to be found: its liner notes refer to a yet to be published article by an untraceable musicologist. Although the recording’s contents are charming, it reveals a collection of works in the Italian style that could have been written by any number of composers. [The lack of cooperation from the owners has frustrated a number of musicologists, which has led to doubts concerning the collection’s authenticity.]

Jean Philippe Rameau was among Marchand's admirers, and his pupils included Pierre Dumage and Louis Claude Daquin. Dumage praised his teacher in the preface to his Premier livre d'orgue (1708), one of the most important works from the late years of the French organ school. Marchand's contemporary Pierre Louis D'Aquin De Château Lyon even compared the composer to François Couperin, claiming that, while Couperin had more art and application, Marchand had a more natural, spontaneous musicianship. In addition to his music, Marchand also wrote a treatise on composition, Règles de la composition, which theorist Sébastien de Brossard considered an excellent, albeit short, work. Although today most of Marchand's extant pieces are regarded as unimportant by most scholars, a few have expressed the opposite view. French musicologist and writer Philippe Beaussant described the composer's work thus: "Though his compositions are skilfully written, their mastery is not obviously admirable as such. They need to be studied closely before they are found to be very great music."