CHARPENTIER, Marc-Antoine.—Musician, born in Paris in 1634, died there on 24 February 1704. He trained under Carissimi in Rome, where he had come to study painting. In his homeland he became one of the greatest masters of the royal chapel and of Madame de Guise; the Duke of Orléans appointed him his music director. Disgusted by Lully’s hostility, he left the theatre to which he had contributed more than twenty-five operas and devoted himself to sacred composition.
He became music master to numerous religious houses and finally to the Sainte-Chapelle, where he was buried. He composed various oratorios (David et Jonathan, L’enfant prodigue, Le rendement de st Pierre), a Dialogus inter Christum et peccatorem, motets, masses for two to eight voices and even for multiple choirs, a four-voice Requiem, many psalms, Lamentationes for one, two or four voices with orchestra, etc.; most of the manuscripts are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.