Jean-Baptiste Forqueray

Jean -Baptiste- Antoine Forquerays ( born April 3, 1699 Paris, † 19 August 1782 Juli/15 ibid. ? ) Was a French viol player and composer.

Life and works

Forquerays came from a family of musicians. Like his father, Antoine Forquerays, Jean- Baptiste- Antoine was a child prodigy; already has five or six years he played before the king. As a virtuoso popular at court and in the music room he excited the jealousy of his father who temporarily left him thrown into prison and auswies from France. In February 1726 Jean -Baptiste- Antoine Forquerays returned to zweimontigem exile and continued his career as a musician at Versailles and at the Concerts Spirituels on. In 1727 he went along with Jean -Pierre Guignon on tour to Rennes and Nantes. He often came into contact with important personalities of the French and foreign aristocracy.

In the fall of 1737 Forquerays played together with Georg Philipp Telemann whose Nouveaux quartets. September 1742 he took over as his father's successor, the Office of the Hofsängers, the he kept until 1761. Then he placed himself at the service of the Prince of Conti. After his death in 1776, he retired from the music scene. From second marriage with the famous harpsichordist Marie-Rose Dubois Forquerays had two children.

Forqueray Pièces de viole original are a highlight of the viola da gamba virtuoso tradition in France.