Jacques Aubert
Jacques Aubert (30 September 1689 – 19 May 1753), also known as Jacques Aubert le Vieux (Jacques Aubert the Elder), was a French composer and violinist.
Aubert was born in Paris and became a student of Jean Baptiste Senaillé. His first position was as violinist in the service of the Prince of Condé. Thereafter he was a member of the Vingt-quatre Violons du Roy. From 1728 to 1752, he was the first violinist at the Paris Opéra.
He regularly and successfully appeared for a dozen years beginning in 1729 at the Concert Spirituel with, among other works, concertos for violin and orchestra of his own composition.
Together with Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville and Jean-Marie Leclair, Aubert brought the zest of Italian violin virtuosity into the French musical fare of their time. He died in Belleville.
His son Louis Aubert (painter) (1720-c.1800) was also a violinist and composer. Another son, Jean-Louis Aubert (1731–1814) was a dramatist, poet and journalist, also known as the Abbé Aubert.
Works
Instrumental
- Pieces for two violins
- Trio sonatas
- Five books of sonatas for violin and basso continuo
- Twelve Suites of concerts de Symphonie (1730)
- Concertos for 4 violins and bass, (the first in this genre by a French composer)
- Les Amuzettes, pièces pour les vièles, musettes, violons, flutes et hautbois. Op. XIV, Paris ca. 1734
- Les petits concerts. Duos pour les musettes, vielles, violons, flutes et hautbois. Op. XVI, Paris ca. 1734
Operas and ballets
- Arlequin gentilhomme malgré lui ou L'Amant supposé, opéra comique (1716 Paris)
- Arlequin Hulla ou La Femme répudiée, opéra comique (1716 Paris)
- Les Animaux raisonnables (Louis Fuzelier/Marc-Antoine Legrand), opéra comique (1718 Paris)
- Diane (Antoine Danchet), divertissement (1721 Chantilly)
- Le Regiment de la calotte (Fuzelier/LeSage/d'Orneval), opéra comique (1721 Paris)
- La Fête royale divertissement (1722 Chantilly)
- Le Ballett de Chantilly, Le Ballet des vingt-quatre heures (LeGrand), comedy (1722 Chantilly)
- La Reine des Péris (Fuzelier), Persian comedy (1725 Paris)
Sources
- Jacques Aubert, entry in the French Wikipedia