BaroqueMarin Marais
Marin Marais was born in Paris more than three hundred and fifty years ago.
Marin Marais’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1656👶 Birth
Born in Paris on 31 May, a shoemaker’s son
- 1667📚 Trainingage 11
Choirboy at Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois
- 1669🌍 Meanwhile
The Royal Academy of Music (Paris Opera) is founded
- 1676❤️ Private lifeage 20
Marries Catherine Damicourt; they will have 19 children
- 1679🎩 Careerage 23
Viol player of the King’s Chamber Music
- 1682🏛️ Landmarkage 26
The court moves to Versailles
- 1682🌍 Meanwhile
The French court moves to Versailles
- 1686🎼 Workage 30
First book of viol pieces
- 1700🌍 Meanwhile
Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano in Florence (c. 1700)
- 1701🎼 Workage 45
Second book, with the Couplets de folies
- 1706🎼 Workage 50
Alcyone, an opera with its famous storm
- 1719🌍 Meanwhile
Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
- 1728🕯️ Deathage 72
Dies in Paris on 15 August
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Marin Marais was born in Paris more than three hundred and fifty years ago. His dad was a shoemaker. As a boy he sang in a church right opposite the Louvre.
Then he learned the viola da gamba, a big string instrument held between the legs, a bit like a cello. His teacher was so strict that he sent him away; so Marais hid under his garden hut to keep listening to him play!
He became a musician for King Louis XIV at Versailles. He loved telling stories in music: a storm, ringing bells and even… an operation at the surgeon’s!
Marais had nineteen children, and several became musicians like him.
Marin Marais’s instruments
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