Nicolas Lebègue
Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue (1631 –
July 6, 1702) was a
French baroque composer,
organist and
harpsichordist. Although he was an innovative composer and quite famous during his lifetime, Lebègue's music is rarely performed or recorded today. He is perhaps best remembered as the teacher of
Nicolas de Grigny.
Little is known about Lebègue's early years and musical training. By
1656 he was living in
Paris and by
1661 he was already known as
the famous Paris organist. Indeed, the surviving copies of his music are much more numerous than those of other organ composers of the era, apparently he was a highly acclaimed musician. In
1664 he became organist of Church Saint-Merry. He occupied that post until his death in 1702.
|
Title page of Troisieme livre d'orgue. |
Lebègue was the first French composer to apply the term
suite to harpsichord suites and one of the first to compose suites for organ. He also contributed to the development of the
unmeasured prelude by introducing the usage of different note values in such pieces and by making attempts to explain, in publications, how to play the pieces. The very first published unmeasured preludes appear in Lebègue's
Le pièces de clavessin (1677).
His surviving works include:
*
1er livre d'orgue (1676), 8 organ suites in the eight
Church Modes.
*
2e livre d'orgue (1678), a
mass and
Magnificat settings for organ.
*
3e livre d'orgue (1685), miscellaneous organ pieces.
* two volumes of harpsichord works (
Pièces de clavecin, 1677 and 1687), some of which were, for some time, falsely attributed to
Dieterich Buxtehude (see
List of compositions by Dieterich Buxtehude).
*
French baroque organists*
