Charpentier, Marc-Antoine

Charpentier, Marc-Antoine

(born 1634, Paris, France—died Feb. 24, 1704, Paris) French composer. He was a student of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome in the 1660s. Back in Paris, he succeeded Jean-Baptiste Lully as music director with Molière's acting troupe (later the Comédie-Française). He became music director at the principal Jesuit church in Paris, and for his last six years he held the prestigious post of maître de chapelle at the Sainte-Chapelle. Enormously prolific, he was the most important French composer of his generation. He wrote 11 masses, 84 psalm settings, and 207 motets, including some 35 dramatic motets or Latin oratorios, a genre he introduced into France. His works include the oratorio Judicium Salomonis (1702), the mass Assumpta est Maria, and the operas Médée (1693) and David et Jonathas (1688).