A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Volumier, Jean Baptiste

VOLUMIER,^[1] Jean Baptiste, a Belgian musician, chiefly remembered for his accidental connexion with John Sebastian Bach, said to have been born in 1677, in Spain, and brought up at the French Court.^[2] He entered the Electoral Chapel of Prussia Nov. 22, 1692, and soon became Maître de Concert and Director of the dance music at the Berlin Court, and was renowned for his Ballets. On June 28, 1709, he was appointed Concertmeister to the Court of Dresden. Here he kept up his former reputation for dance music and divertissements, but was also celebrated as a violin-player, especially of French compositions, and a performer on an instrument of the Hackbrett kind, of his own invention. He was on friendly terms with Bach and an enthusiastic admirer of his genius, and it was during his residence at Dresden, and also at his instigation, that the famous match was arranged between Bach and Marchand the French player, which resulted in the flight of the latter. Volumier died at Dresden Oct. 7, 1728. (See Fürstenau, 'Zur Geschichte Musik … am Hofe Dresdens'; Matheson, 'Ehrenpforte'; Forkel, 'J. S. Bach.')

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1. The name is said to have originally Woulmyer.
2. Mendel.