Henri Desmarets
Encyclopedia
Henri Desmarets was a French
composer of the Baroque
period primarily known for his stage works, although he also composed sacred music as well as secular cantata
s, songs and instrumental works.
in the cavalry at the Grand Châtelet
. Desmarets' childhood was marked by the his father's death when he was eight years old, his mother's subsequent re-marriage in 1670, and the death of his two siblings. In 1674, he entered into the service of King Louis XIV as a page
and choir singer in the Chapelle Royale
(Chapel Royal). According to Duron and Ferraton, he may have also previously sung as a choir boy in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois
which was the parish church of the kings of France. While in the service of the king, he received a general education as well as music training from Pierre Robert
and Henry Du Mont. He is also thought to have received training from the court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully
, who used the chapel pages as performers in his operas. By 1780 he had become an "ordinaire de la musique du roi" (court musician) and had composed the first of his grand motets (Te Deum 1678). The idyll
-ballet which he composed in August 1682 to celebrate the birth of the king's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy found great favour at court and the following year he entered the competition to select four maîtres (masters) of the Chapelle Royale. He was only 22 at the time and according to some accounts, the King had vetoed his selection after he had passed the first round on account of his youth.
After the competition, Desmarets petitioned the king to allow him to leave France for study with Italian composers, but Lully objected on the grounds that it would diminish his command of the French style. Desmarts remained at the court and made money by "ghost-writing" works for one of the composers who had won the competition, Nicolas Goupillet
. Goupillet was dismissed from his post ten years later when the deception came to light. In the meantime, Desmarets continued to find favour with his own compositions, most notably his motet Beati quorum (1683); his divertissement
, La Diane de Fontainebleau (1686) and his first full-length opera, Endymion (1686). The first performance of Endymion was in the king's private apartments
at Versailles
, performed in parts over six days. The Dauphine was so pleased with it that at her request it was performed again in its entirety at the court theatre ten days later. Desmarets was increasingly gravitating towards stage works, but Lully's monopoly of the Académie Royale de Musique
in Paris (granted by the king) meant that operas by other composers were not presented there until after his death in 1687.
in 1693 and premiered his opera Didon
in June of that year. It was the first of his stage works to be performed at the Académie Royale de Musique. Over the next two years three more of his operas premiered there: Circé (1694), Théagène et Cariclée (1695), and Les amours de Momus (1695).
In the summer of 1696, Élisabeth Desmarets died, leaving him with their six year-old daughter to bring up. Desmarets became a frequent visitor to the Saint-Gobert family in Senlis
, who offered to help him take care of Élisabeth-Madeleine. Both families had been friends since 1689, and Desmarets had given singing lessons to their daughter, Marie-Marguerite when she was fifteen. During these visits, Desmarets and the now eighteen year-old Marie-Marguerite fell in love and within six months of his wife's death, they asked her father for permission to marry. He flatly refused and put his daughter in a convent when he discovered that she was pregnant. In the midst of all this, Desmarets was preparing his opera Vénus et Adonis for its 1697 premiere. The lovers eloped to Paris and Marie-Marguerite gave birth to a son in February 1698.
unfinished. He was eventually condemned to death in absentia
in May 1700. With no possibility of returning to France, Desmarets took a position in Spain as the court composer to Philip V
. There he Marguerite were officially married. He left Spain in 1707 to become the master of music at the court of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
at the Château de Lunéville
. (At the time, Lorraine was not officially part of France.) While he was in exile, his friends Jean-Baptiste Matho
and Anne Danican Philidor
kept his artistic reputation alive in France by ensuring that his works continued to be performed and published there. André Campra
completed Iphigénie en Tauride for him and it premiered in Paris in 1704.
in 1720, and his second marriage was officially recognized. He applied to become the master of the Chapelle Royale at the court of Louis XV
in 1726, but was unsuccessful and remained in Lorraine for the rest of his days. Desmarets died in Lunéville on 7 September 1741 in his 84th year and was buried there in the convent church of the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth. Marie-Marguerite had died fourteen years earlier. Only two of their many children survived them, Francois-Antoine (1711–1786), who became a high-ranking official in Senlis
and Léopold (1708-1747), who became a cavalry officer and for many years was the lover of novelist and playwright Françoise de Graffigny
. Desmarets' daughter from his first marriage, Élisabeth-Madeleine, took care of him in his old age and died a few months after her father.
remains.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
composer of the Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
period primarily known for his stage works, although he also composed sacred music as well as secular cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s, songs and instrumental works.
Early years and first successes
Henri Desmarets was born into a modest Paris household in February 1661. His mother, Madeleine née Frottier, came from a bourgeois Parisian family. His father, Hugues Desmarets was a huissierHuissier
The French word huissier comes from huis, that is, a house. The word huissier thus designates two professions that originally had to do with opening and closing doors....
in the cavalry at the Grand Châtelet
Grand Châtelet
The Grand Châtelet was a stronghold in Ancien Régime Paris, on the right bank of the Seine, on the site of what is now the Place du Châtelet; it contained a court and police headquarters and a number of prisons....
. Desmarets' childhood was marked by the his father's death when he was eight years old, his mother's subsequent re-marriage in 1670, and the death of his two siblings. In 1674, he entered into the service of King Louis XIV as a page
Page (servant)
A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
and choir singer in the Chapelle Royale
Chapelle royale
The chapelle royale was the musical establishment attached to the royal chapel of the French kings. The term may also be applied to the chapel buildings, the Chapelle royale de Versailles....
(Chapel Royal). According to Duron and Ferraton, he may have also previously sung as a choir boy in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois
Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois
The Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois is situated at 2, Place du Louvre, Paris 75001; the nearest Métro station is Louvre-Rivoli.Located at the center of Paris, by the Seine and near the Louvre, this former parish of the kings of France is generally regarded as the Church of the Louvre...
which was the parish church of the kings of France. While in the service of the king, he received a general education as well as music training from Pierre Robert
Pierre Robert (composer)
Pierre Robert was French composer and early master of the French grand motet.Pierre Robert was educated at the boys choir, or maîtrise, of Notre-Dame de Paris under the direction of Henry Frémart, Jean Francois, and Cosset Veillot before being appointed master of music at the Cathedral of Senlis...
and Henry Du Mont. He is also thought to have received training from the court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
, who used the chapel pages as performers in his operas. By 1780 he had become an "ordinaire de la musique du roi" (court musician) and had composed the first of his grand motets (Te Deum 1678). The idyll
Idyll
An idyll or idyl is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the Idylls....
-ballet which he composed in August 1682 to celebrate the birth of the king's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy found great favour at court and the following year he entered the competition to select four maîtres (masters) of the Chapelle Royale. He was only 22 at the time and according to some accounts, the King had vetoed his selection after he had passed the first round on account of his youth.
After the competition, Desmarets petitioned the king to allow him to leave France for study with Italian composers, but Lully objected on the grounds that it would diminish his command of the French style. Desmarts remained at the court and made money by "ghost-writing" works for one of the composers who had won the competition, Nicolas Goupillet
Nicolas Goupillet
Nicolas Goupillet also Coupillet or Goupillier was a French Baroque composer - albeit a composer who may not have himself composed all of his works....
. Goupillet was dismissed from his post ten years later when the deception came to light. In the meantime, Desmarets continued to find favour with his own compositions, most notably his motet Beati quorum (1683); his divertissement
Divertissement
Divertissement is used, in a similar sense to the Italian 'divertimento', for a light piece of music for a small group of players, however the French term has additional meanings....
, La Diane de Fontainebleau (1686) and his first full-length opera, Endymion (1686). The first performance of Endymion was in the king's private apartments
Appartement du roi
The appartement du roi is the suite of rooms in the Palace of Versailles that served as the living quarters of Louis XIV. Overlooking the cour de marbre, these rooms are situated in the oldest part of the chateau in rooms originally designated for use by the queen in Louis XIII’s chateau...
at Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
, performed in parts over six days. The Dauphine was so pleased with it that at her request it was performed again in its entirety at the court theatre ten days later. Desmarets was increasingly gravitating towards stage works, but Lully's monopoly of the Académie Royale de Musique
Académie Royale de Musique
The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...
in Paris (granted by the king) meant that operas by other composers were not presented there until after his death in 1687.
Operas on the Paris stage and scandal in Senlis
Desmarets' Te Deum was performed in the oratory of the Louvre Palace in February 1687 to celebrate Louis IV's recovery from illness, and later that year the king granted him a pension of 900 livres. Desmarets married Élisabeth Desprez, the daughter of a Parisian blade manufacturer, in 1689, and the following year their daughter, Élisabeth-Madeleine was born. He became the Chapel Master of the Jesuit college Louis-le-GrandLycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...
in 1693 and premiered his opera Didon
Didon (Desmarets)
Didon is a tragédie en musique or opera in 1 prologue and 5 Acts by composer Henri Desmarets. The work uses a French language libretto by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Saintonge...
in June of that year. It was the first of his stage works to be performed at the Académie Royale de Musique. Over the next two years three more of his operas premiered there: Circé (1694), Théagène et Cariclée (1695), and Les amours de Momus (1695).
In the summer of 1696, Élisabeth Desmarets died, leaving him with their six year-old daughter to bring up. Desmarets became a frequent visitor to the Saint-Gobert family in Senlis
Senlis, Oise
Senlis is a French commune located in the Oise department near Paris. It has a long and rich heritage, having traversed centuries of history. This medieval town has welcomed some of the most renowned figures in French history, including Hugh Capet, Louis IX, the Marshall of France, Anne of Kiev and...
, who offered to help him take care of Élisabeth-Madeleine. Both families had been friends since 1689, and Desmarets had given singing lessons to their daughter, Marie-Marguerite when she was fifteen. During these visits, Desmarets and the now eighteen year-old Marie-Marguerite fell in love and within six months of his wife's death, they asked her father for permission to marry. He flatly refused and put his daughter in a convent when he discovered that she was pregnant. In the midst of all this, Desmarets was preparing his opera Vénus et Adonis for its 1697 premiere. The lovers eloped to Paris and Marie-Marguerite gave birth to a son in February 1698.
Exile
After the elopement, nearly three years of complicated court cases ensued with Marie-Marguerite's father, Jacques de Saint-Gobert, accusing her mother, Marie-Charlotte de Saint-Gobert, of complicity in the affair. She in turn accused her husband of attempting to poison her. Saint-Gobert disinherited his daughter and had Desmarets charged with seduction and kidnapping. Desmarets and Marie-Maguerite fled to Brussels before he could be arrested, leaving his opera Iphigénie en TaurideIphigénie en Tauride (Campra)
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by the French composers Henri Desmarets and André Campra. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. The libretto is by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy with additions by Antoine Danchet...
unfinished. He was eventually condemned to death in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
in May 1700. With no possibility of returning to France, Desmarets took a position in Spain as the court composer to Philip V
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
. There he Marguerite were officially married. He left Spain in 1707 to become the master of music at the court of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
Leopold , surnamed the Good, was Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1690 to his death.-Early life:Leopold Joseph Charles Dominique Agapet Hyacinthe was the son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria, a half-sister of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.At the time of...
at the Château de Lunéville
Château de Lunéville
The Château de Lunéville which had belonged to the Dukes of Lorraine since the thirteenth century, was rebuilt as “the Versailles of Lorraine” by Duke Léopold from 1703 to 1723, from designs of Pierre Bourdict and Nicolas Dorbay and then of the architect Germain Boffrand, whose masterwork it became...
. (At the time, Lorraine was not officially part of France.) While he was in exile, his friends Jean-Baptiste Matho
Jean-Baptiste Matho
Jean-Baptiste Matho was a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Montfort-sur-Meu near Rennes, his name was originally M. F. H. Thomassin. As a child, Matho attracted attention for the quality of his singing voice and he was sent to Versailles where he began a career as one of the king's...
and Anne Danican Philidor
Anne Danican Philidor
Anne Danican Philidor is best remembered today for having founded the Concert Spirituel, an important series of public concerts held in the palace of the Tuileries from 1725 to 1791....
kept his artistic reputation alive in France by ensuring that his works continued to be performed and published there. André Campra
André Campra
André Campra was a French composer and conductor.Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet...
completed Iphigénie en Tauride for him and it premiered in Paris in 1704.
Final years
Desmarets was finally pardoned by the French RegentPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans
Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
in 1720, and his second marriage was officially recognized. He applied to become the master of the Chapelle Royale at the court of Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
in 1726, but was unsuccessful and remained in Lorraine for the rest of his days. Desmarets died in Lunéville on 7 September 1741 in his 84th year and was buried there in the convent church of the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth. Marie-Marguerite had died fourteen years earlier. Only two of their many children survived them, Francois-Antoine (1711–1786), who became a high-ranking official in Senlis
Senlis, Oise
Senlis is a French commune located in the Oise department near Paris. It has a long and rich heritage, having traversed centuries of history. This medieval town has welcomed some of the most renowned figures in French history, including Hugh Capet, Louis IX, the Marshall of France, Anne of Kiev and...
and Léopold (1708-1747), who became a cavalry officer and for many years was the lover of novelist and playwright Françoise de Graffigny
Françoise de Graffigny
Françoise de Graffigny, née d'Issembourg Du Buisson d'Happoncourt was a French novelist, playwright and salon hostess....
. Desmarets' daughter from his first marriage, Élisabeth-Madeleine, took care of him in his old age and died a few months after her father.
Works
Both the music and the text for some of the works listed here have been lost. In other cases, only the librettoLibretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
remains.
Stage works
- Idylle sur la naissance du duc de Bourgogne, idyllIdyllAn idyll or idyl is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the Idylls....
-ballet, text by Antoinette Deshoulières, 1682 (music lost) - Endymion, opera (tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue, first performed at VersaillesPalace of VersaillesThe Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
in separate parts between 16 and 23 February 1686 (lost) - La Diane de Fontainebleau, divertissementDivertissementDivertissement is used, in a similar sense to the Italian 'divertimento', for a light piece of music for a small group of players, however the French term has additional meanings....
, libretto by Antoine Maurel, first performed at Fontainebleau 2 November 1686 - DidonDidon (Desmarets)Didon is a tragédie en musique or opera in 1 prologue and 5 Acts by composer Henri Desmarets. The work uses a French language libretto by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Saintonge...
, opera (tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue, libretto by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Saintonge, first performed at the Académie Royale de MusiqueAcadémie Royale de MusiqueThe Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...
5 June 1693 (reprised 11 September in the presence of Louis, Grand DauphinLouis, Grand DauphinLouis of France was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin...
) - Circé, opera (tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue, libretto by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Saintonge, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique on 1 October 1694
- Théagène et Cariclée, operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
(tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue, libretto by Joseph-François Duché de VancyJoseph-François Duché de VancyJoseph-François Duché de Vancy was a French playwright.-Life:He was the son of a gentleman in the household of Louis XIV and was himself a valet de chambre du roi. He followed Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles to Spain as his secretary...
, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique on 12 April 1695 - Les amours de Momus, opéra-balletOpéra-balletOpéra-ballet was a popular genre of French Baroque opera, "that grew out of the ballets à entrées of the early seventeeth century". It differed from the more elevated tragédie en musique as practised by Jean-Baptiste Lully in several ways...
in 3 acts and a prologue, story by Duché de Vancy, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique on 12 June 1695 - Vénus et AdonisVénus et AdonisVénus et Adonis is an opera in a prologue and 5 acts composed by Henri Desmarets to a libretto by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau. Based on the story of Venus and Adonis in Book X of Ovid's Metamorphoses, it was first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 28 July 1697 with Marie Le...
, opera (tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue, libretto by Jean-Baptiste RousseauJean-Baptiste RousseauJean-Baptiste Rousseau was a French poet.-Biography:Rousseau was born in Paris, the son of a shoemaker, and was well educated. As a young man, he gained favour with Boileau, who encouraged him to write. Rousseau began with the theatre, for which he had no aptitude...
, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique on 28 July 1697 - Les festes galantes, opéra-ballet in 3 acts and a prologue, story by Duché de Vancy, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique on 10 May 1698
- Divertissement celebrating the marriage of Philip V of SpainPhilip V of SpainPhilip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
and Maria Luisa of SavoyMaria Luisa of SavoyMaria Luisa of Savoy was a Savoyard princess and the first wife of Philip V of Spain. She acted as Regent of Spain and had great influence over her husband...
, libretto by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Saintonge, first performed in Barcelona in October 1701 (lost) - Iphigénie en TaurideIphigénie en Tauride (Campra)Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by the French composers Henri Desmarets and André Campra. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. The libretto is by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy with additions by Antoine Danchet...
, opera (tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue (completed by CampraAndré CampraAndré Campra was a French composer and conductor.Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet...
), libretto by Duché de Vancy and Antoine DanchetAntoine DanchetAntoine Danchet was a French playwright, librettist and dramatic poet.-Biography:Danchet was born in Riom, in the Auvergne, France. Having been a professor of rhetoric at Chartres and then a tutor at Paris, Danchet gaveup teaching to write for the theatre. He wrote some opera libretti which, set...
, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique 6 May 1704 - Renaud, ou La suite d’Armide, opera (tragédie en musique) in 5 acts and a prologue, libretto by Simon-Joseph PellegrinSimon-Joseph PellegrinThe abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a French poet and playwright, a librettist who collaborated with Jean-Philippe Rameau and other composers.-Biography:...
, first performed 5 March 1722
Cantatas
- Le couronnement de la reine par la déesse Flore, text by Marchal, 1724 (music lost)
- Clytie, 1724 (music lost)
- Le lys heureux époux, text by Marchal, 1724 (music lost)
- La toilette de Vénus, text by Charles-Jean-François HénaultCharles-Jean-François HénaultCharles-Jean-François Hénault was a French historian.-Early years:Hénault was born in Paris. His father, a farmer-general of taxes, was a man of literary tastes, and young Hénault obtained a good education at the Jesuit college...
(date unknown, music lost)
Sources
- Anthony, James R. and Heyer, John Hajdu (1989). Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Music of the French Baroque. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521352630
- Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Desmarets". Almanacco Amadeus. Accessed 5 February 2011.
- Castil-BlazeCastil-BlazeFrançois-Henri-Joseph Blaze, known as Castil-Blaze , was a French musicologist, music critic, composer, and music editor.-Biography:...
(1855) L'Académie impériale de musique: histoire littéraire, musicale, politique et galante de ce théâtre, de 1645 à 1855 Volume I and Volume II - Duron, Jean and Ferraton, Yves (2005). Henry Desmarest (1661-1741): Exils d'un musicien dans l'Europe du grand siècle. Editions Mardaga. ISBN 2870098863
- Duron, Jean and Ferraton, Yves (2006). Vénus & Adonis (1697): Tragédie en musique de Henry Desmarest: livret, études et commentaires. Editions Mardaga. ISBN 2870099207
- Fétis, François-JosephFrançois-Joseph FétisFrançois-Joseph Fétis was a Belgian musicologist, composer, critic and teacher. He was one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century, and his enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today...
(1836). "Desmarets, Henri", Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, Volume 3. Leroux - Girdlestone, CuthbertCuthbert GirdlestoneCuthbert Morton Girdlestone was a British musicologist and literary scholar. He was educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, and thereafter took up the chair in French in Armstrong College, later to be King's College in Newcastle in 1926, a position he held until 1960...
(1972). La Tragedie en Musique (1673–1750. Librairie Droz. ISBN 2600035206 - Greene, David Mason (1986/2007). "Desmarets, Henri", Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers, pp. 186-187. Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation, 2007 (originally published by Collins, 1986). ISBN 0385142781
- Sadie, Julie Anne (1998). "Desmarets, Henry". Companion to Baroque Music. University of California Press. ISBN 0520214145
- Warszawski, Jean-Marc (2004). "Desmarets, Henri". musicologie.org. Accessed 5 February 2011.
- Wood, Caroline (2001) "Desmarets [Desmarest, Desmaretz, Desmarais], Henry". Grove Music Online. Accessed 5 February 2011. . (Online version of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. ISBN 9780195170672)