Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy

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Organ of Perpignan Cathedral , where Geoffroy was the organist

Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy (* 1633 ; † March 11, 1694 in Perpignan ) was a French harpsichordist , organist and composer .

Life

Little is known about his life and work before 1690; he was probably a student of Nicolas Lebègue . Geoffroy was organist at the Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet church in Paris, and later in Perpignan at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste cathedral . Here he was considered a connoisseur of organ building.

His harpsichord work is comparable to the compositions of François Couperin and Jean-François Dandrieu and is one of the most important works of the French Baroque. In his main work "Livre de clavecin", which was preserved as a manuscript and which appeared after his death, he combined 217 of his own and 38 arrangements of other compositions for harpsichord, which are systematically set in all major and minor keys. Furthermore, masses and some chamber music works by Geoffroy have come down to us. His organ works are characterized by lightness and grace. His liturgical compositions, in which instrumentally accompanied choral movements alternate with organ verses, have no parallel in their time in France.

literature

  • Barbara Ann DeBoer: The harpsichord music of Jean Nicolas Geoffroy. Diss. Northwestern University, Ann Arbor / Mich. 1983.
  • Jean Bonfils (Ed.): Livre d'orgue attribué à Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy. Heugel, Paris 1974.
  • Jacques Frisch (Ed.): Pièces de clavessin de tous les tons naturels et transposés de Jean Nicolas Geoffroy. Les Cahiers du Tourdion, Strasbourg 1993.
  • Denise Launay: Geoffroy, Jean-Nicolas. In: Music in the past and present . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1955, p. 1769.
  • Martine Roche: Un livre de clavecin français de la fin du XVIIeme siècle. In: Recherches. Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 39-73.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Launay: Geoffroy, Jean-Nicolas. 1955, p. 1769.
  2. ^ Roche: Un livre de clavecin français. 1967, pp. 39-73.
  3. ^ Biography on Naxos , accessed February 8, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Geoffroy, Jean-Nicolas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Geoffrey, Jean-Nicolas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French organist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 1633
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1694
Place of death Perpignan