Louis-Gabriel Guillemain

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Profile Overview of Louis-Gabriel Guillemain

Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (5 November 1705 – 1 October 1770) was a French composer and violinist.

Biography of Louis-Gabriel Guillemain

Guillemain is thought to have been born in Paris, was brought up by the Count de Rochechouart, and started studying violin at an early age. He was then sent to Italy to complete his training as violinist, and studied under Giovanni Battista Somis in Turin. At the age of 24, Guillemain was working in Lyons, where he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after performers, and was appointed first violinist of the Acadèmie de Musique. His opus 1, Premier livre de sonates for violin and basso continuo, was published in Dijon in 1734.

Guillemain eventually moved back to Paris, where, in 1737, he became a musicien ordinaire to the King. His career was progressing rapidly, and by the early 1740s the composer was among the highest-paid musicians at the court, regularly performing in private concerts before the royal couple. He continued publishing his music, and his works were frequently performed at the court in the late 1740s and early 1750s. Fellow composer Louis-Claude Daquin praised Guillemain in his 1752 Lettre sur les hommes célèbres:

But Guillemain's private life was troubled. He was apparently a heavy drinker, especially in his later years, and he was also continually in debt because of his extravagant spending. He died in Chaville, then a small settlement near Paris, in 1770; some contemporary accounts describe his death as a bloody suicide, with the composer stabbing himself with a knife fourteen times. But the drinking habit and the fact that Guillemain was buried, may indicate that he died a natural death.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Gabriel_Guillemain), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.