sorcier (1764), Tom Jones (1765), Ernelinde, (1767) and Persée (1780). He had much success with ensemble numbers—trios, quartets, septets, etc.
Pierre Alexandre Monsigny (d. 1817), born in 1729, in youth a self-trained violinist, also made such study of composition that, aroused by hearing Pergolesi's La serva padrona, he suddenly blossomed in 1759 into a writer of comic operas. In 18 years he produced, mainly at the Comédie Italienne, about a dozen operas with augmenting success, among the last and best being Le déserteur (1769), La belle Arsène (1773) and Félix (1777). His gifts were the reverse of Philidor's—melodic invention and dramatic instinct, but little technical or structural skill. During the rest of his life he wrote no more operas, distrusting his power of further creation. He long held a business office under the Duke of Orleans, was inspector at the Conservatoire in 1800-2, and followed Grétry as an Academician in 1813.
François Joseph Gossec (d. 1829), already mentioned (sec. 148) as important in the development of the symphony, was born in Belgium in 1734. After training at Antwerp as a choirboy and violinist, from 1751 he had success at Paris as a player. In 1761 he entered the field of light opera, making a hit with Les pêcheurs (1766), and soon undertook grand opera in rivalry with Gluck, writing over 15 works of various calibre. He also wrote some oratorios, much excellent church music, including a noted Messe des Morts (1760), and was one of the few musicians of the Revolution (festal plays and songs, 1792-3). Except in his instrumental works, Gossec was more industrious than creative, but he secured a position of great influence, which he used for wholesome results. He was an able organizer, setting up a new orchestral standard from his first years in Paris, founding the Concerts des amateurs in 1770, conducting the Concerts spirituels from 1773 and also as deputy at the Opéra in 1780-2, founding the École royale du chant in 1784, and serving from 1795 as inspector in the later Conservatoire and also for many years as one of the judges of new works at the Opéra.
André Ernest Modeste Grétry (d. 1813) was the most conspicuous figure of the period. He was born in 1741 at Liège, where as a boy he heard some Italian operas. He developed his evident talent there and from 1759 at Rome, but his eagerness to compose interfered with his studiousness. An intermezzo of his was given at Rome in 1765, and his first French comic opera at Geneva in 1767. He then went to Paris and, after producing Zémire et Azor (1771), entered upon a popularity of extraordinary magnitude that lasted, in spite of many checks, for 30 years. Of his about 50 operas, those most valued were Le tableau parlant (1769), L'amant jaloux (1778), La caravane du Cairo (1783), L'épreuve villageoise (1784), and especially Richard Cœur de Lion (1784). His forte was comedy, if not cast on too large a scale. He had a great liking for musical declamation and a certain degree of melodic power, and his dramatic sense was excellent. But his harmony was feeble and his instrumentation thin, though not inapt, so that several of his works were later reorchestrated by other composers. In spite of his defects as a musician, he is counted as the founder of the modern French comedy-opera, and in his own day was loaded with honors, both within France and elsewhere. He was vain of his successes and yet understood his limitations. He wrote some church music and many instrumental pieces (6 symphonies as early as 1758),
