Françoise-Charlotte de Senneterre Ménétou (1679 – 4 November 1745) was a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

ist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

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Biography

Françoise-Charlotte Ménétou was born into an aristocratic family in 1679 of parents Henri François de Saint-Nectaire, Duc de La Ferte-Sennecterre (1657–1703), and Isabelle Gabrielle Marie Angélique de La Mothe-Houdancourt. She married François Gabriel, Marquis de la Ferté Thibault de La Carte Marquis de la Ferté on 28 July 1698 and her son was Louis Philippe, Marquis de La Ferte-Senneterre Thibault de La Carte, Marquis de La Ferte-Senneterre (1699–1780). She died at Château de la Ferté at age 66.

Françoise-Charlotte Ménétou performed before King Louis XIV at the age of nine. In 1691 she became the youngest female composer to have her works issued by the royal printer, Christophe Ballard. The historical significance of her manuscript was first noted in 1970 in an article by Alan Curtis

Alan Curtis (harpsichordist)

Alan Curtis is a noted American harpsichordist, musicologist, and conductor of baroque opera. After graduate studies at the University of Illinois , where he wrote his dissertation on the keyboard music of Sweelinck, he studied in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, with whom he subsequently recorded...

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Works

De Senneterre Ménétou composed for voice and harpsichord. Selected works include:

• Aymez DeSornaus for voice and harpsichord
• De Toutes Les Heures for voice and harpsichord
• Folies D'espagne for harpsichord
• Gavottes for harpsichord
• J'ay pour Tous Bien une Musette for voice and harpsichord
• Menuete for harpsichord
• Les Olivettes for harpsichord
• Sans Crainte Dans nos Praires for voice and harpsichord