A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Lalande, Michel de

LALANDE, Michel Richard De, Surintendant de la Musique under Louis XIV. and XV., the cleverest composer of church music of his day, was born in Paris, Dec. 15, 1657, and died in the same city, June 18, 1726, having spent 45 years in the service of the court. He was the fifteenth child of a tailor, and was at first a chorister of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, where he studied music under Chaperon, and learnt, almost entirely by himself, to play the violin, bass viol, and harpsichord. When, on the breaking of his voice at the age of 15, he was obliged to leave the maîtrise, he bethought himself of turning his violin-playing to account, and applied for admission into Lulli's orchestra. He was refused, and swore out of pique never to touch the violin again. He gave himself up to the organ, and made such progress that he was soon appointed organist in four different churches in Paris—St. Gervais, St. Jean, Petit St. Antoine, and at the church of the Jesuits, who confided to him the composition of symphonies and choruses for several of the tragedies performed at their college. He soon afterwards applied for the post of organist to the King, but though Lulli pronounced him to be the best of the competitors, he was refused on account of his youth. He was recommended by the Maréchal de Noailles, to whose daughters he taught music, to Louis XIV., and the King chose him to superintend the musical education of the princesses, afterwards the Duchesse d'Orléans and Madame la Duchesse. Lalande was so successful in this capacity that the King appointed him master of his chamber music; and in 1683, on the retirement of Dumont and Robert from the superintendence of the chapelle, he obtained one of the appointments, for it was decided to appoint four officers to serve for three months by turns. Eventually the offices were united in the person of Lalande, who had now received several pensions and the cordon of the order of St. Michel. In 1684 the King had given him a wife, Anne Rebel, said to be the best singer of the court, had paid the expenses of the wedding, and given a dowry to the bride. In 1722, having lost his wife, and two gifted daughters, who died of smallpox in the same year as the Dauphin (1711), Lalande begged the King to allow him to remit three-quarters of his salary, thus returning to the original arrangement. He presented as his substitutes and assistants Campra, Bernier, and Gervais. As a reward for his disinterested conduct the Regent granted him a pension of 3000 livres. In the following year he married again, Mile, de Cury, daughter of one of the Princesse de Conti's surgeons, and died three years later at the age of 68. Lalande, though infinitely superior to the composers of church music of his time—Goupillet, Minoret, etc.—cannot of course be compared to Handel and Bach, who were almost his contemporaries. The cause of his superiority over his immediate rivals was that he knew how to adapt to French tastes the forms of concerted church music hitherto confined to the Italian school, and his compositions, besides possessing real imagination, show that, like the musicians of Lulli's school, he gave special attention to declamation and to the proper agreement between words and music. He wrote no less than 60 motets for chorus and orchestra for the chapel at Versailles, which were published most luxuriously at the King's expense. They are contained in 20 books, and are usually found bound in 10 volumes. He did not contribute so much as is generally supposed to the the ballet of 'Les Eléments,' by Destouches (Tuileries, Dec. 31, 1721; Académie de Musique, May 29, 1725), his portion being confined to a few pieces in the prologue. He wrote music for the heroic pastoral 'Mélicerte,' begun by Molière and altered by Guérin. He composed various works for the court theatres:—the 'Ballet de la Jeunesse' (Versailles, 1686), 'L'Amour flechi par la Constance' (Fontainebleau, 1697), 'Les Folies de Cardenio' (Tuileries, 1720). Fétis is of opinion that Lalande worked at several operas without allowing anything to be represented under his own name, and gives as his authority Titon du Tillet, to whom we owe the biographical details of Lalande; but du Tillet does not mention it in his article on Lalande in the 'Parnasse Français.'

[ A. J. ]