Marin Marais

Marin Marais was born in Paris on 31 May 1656, the son of a humble shoemaker. Thanks to an uncle who was a priest, he became a choirboy at the church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, opposite the Louvre, where he received a solid musical training. There he met Michel-Richard de Lalande, the future great court composer. When his voice broke he devoted himself to the bass viol, a bowed string instrument held between the legs, much prized in France at that time.

Around 1675 he became the pupil of Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, the greatest viol player of his day, a solitary and mysterious man credited with adding a seventh low string to the instrument. According to Titon du Tillet, the master dismissed his pupil after a few months, judging he had nothing more to teach him. Yet Marais kept listening to him in secret, hidden beneath the hut where Sainte-Colombe played in his garden. This relationship inspired Pascal Quignard’s novel and the film Tous les matins du monde (1991), which brought Marais back to wide public attention.

In 1676 he married Catherine Damicourt, with whom he had nineteen children, several of whom became musicians. The same year he joined the Opéra orchestra, directed by Lully, who became his composition teacher. In 1679 Marais was appointed ordinaire de la musique de la Chambre du roi for the viol, a post he held for nearly fifty years. He played for Louis XIV at Versailles, where the court settled in 1682, and often conducted the Opéra orchestra.

Marais wrote mainly for his instrument. His five books of viol pieces, published between 1686 and 1725, contain nearly six hundred pieces: preludes, dances, portraits and descriptive pieces. In the second book (1701), the Couplets de folies, on the famous Folies d’Espagne theme, offer thirty-two virtuoso variations. His music exploits every resource of the viol: deep low sounds, chords and delicate ornaments that Marais notated with unprecedented precision.

He was also an opera composer. His Alcyone (1706) contains a famous storm scene: to imitate wind and waves Marais used double basses, drum rolls and agitated strings, an effect that greatly impressed the audience. The storm music was played for decades, even outside the opera. He also wrote Ariane et Bacchus, Alcide and Sémélé.

Marais loved descriptive music. In La Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève-du-Mont (1723), violin, viol and harpsichord imitate the bells of a Paris church tirelessly ringing three notes. Even more surprising, the Tableau de l’opération de la taille (1725) describes in music a surgical operation to remove a bladder stone, with a text marking each stage: the sight of the apparatus, the incision, the insertion of the forceps and finally the patient being carried back to bed.

Late in life Marais retired and handed his post to his son Roland. He lived in a house in the faubourg Saint-Marceau, tended his garden and still gave a few lessons. He died in Paris on 15 August 1728. His death coincided with the decline of the viola da gamba, soon to be dethroned by the cello. He remains the greatest composer for the instrument and one of the masters of French music of the Grand Siècle.