Michel Corrette

Michel Corrette

Michel Corrette (10 April 1707 – 21 January 1795) was a French organist, composer and author of musical method books.

Life

Corrette was born in Rouen, Normandy. His father, Gaspard Corrette, was an organist and composer. Corrette served as organist at the Jesuit College in Paris from about 1737 to 1780. It is also known that he traveled to England before 1773. In 1780 he was appointed organist to the Duke of Angoulême and some 15 years later died in Paris at the age of 87.

Music

Corrette was prolific. He composed ballets and divertissements for the stage, including Arlequin, Armide, le Judement de Midas, les Âges, Nina and Persée. He composed many concertos, notably 25 concertos comiques. Aside from these works and concertos for organ, he also composed sonatas, songs, instrumental chamber works, harpsichord pieces, cantatas and other sacred vocal works.

His teaching

Aside from playing the organ and composing music, Corrette organized concerts and taught music. He wrote nearly twenty music method books for various instruments—the violin, cello, bass, flute, recorder, bassoon, harpsichord, harp, mandolin, voice and more—with titles such as l'Art de se perfectionner sur le violon (The Art of Playing the Violin Perfectly), le Parfait Maître à chanter (The Perfect Mastersinger) and L′école d′Orphée (The School of Orpheus), a violin treatise describing the French and Italian styles. These pedagogical works by Corrette are valuable because they "give lucid insight into contemporary playing techniques."[1]

External links

• Corrette: Tous les bourgeois de Chastres [2]
• Corrette: Noël provençal [3]
• YouTube Basse de trompette, from 3rd Organ Book, Pastór de Lasala.
• YouTube L’Éclatante, from 3rd Organ Book, Pastór de Lasala.
• YouTube Grand Jeu from Magnificat in A major (Premier Livre d’Orgue, 1737), by André Isoir.
• Michel Corrette (1707 - 1795), biographical sketch on Here of a Sunday Morning website.
• Michel Corrette More complete text from the French Wikipedia.

Free scores

• Free scores by Michel Corrette in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Michel Corrette in the International Music Score Library Project
• e-Partitions Organ music.
• Les pantins (from Maîtres français du clavecin des XVIIme et XVIIIme siècles) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection

See also

• French baroque harpsichordists
• French organ school