Louis-Antoine Dornel
Compositions for: Voice
Le Tombeau de ClorindeWikipediaLouis-Antoine Dornel (30 march 1680 in Presles, Val-d'Oise near (Beaumont-sur-Oise) – 22 july 1757 ibd.) was a French composer, harpsichordist, organist and violinist.
Dornel was probably taught by the organist
Nicolas Lebègue. He was appointed organist at the church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine-en-la-Cité in 1706, where he took over from
François d'Agincourt. He was runner-up in the competition for the post to
Jean-Philippe Rameau, who eventually refused the terms set by the church authorities. He occupied several organist posts in Paris over a period from 1714 to 1748. In 1719 he was appointed to the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, following the death of
André Raison.
From 1725 to 1742, Dornel was appointed successor to du Boussetto as the music master of the Académie Française. He was required to compose a large-scale motet for choir and orchestra to be performed by the Académie each year on the feast of Saint Louis (August 25), but none survive. Dornel's works for harpsichord and for organ were well regarded at the time, the Mercure de France stating that they were "fort estimées et de très facile exécution" (well regarded and easy to play).
We know little more about the rest of his career, other than that his last surviving organ manuscript is dated 1756. A hand written inscription on the covergives his birth and death date as 1691 and 1765.
As Dornel was not a salaried court musician, he had to respond to the tastes of the concert societies set up by the French aristocracy, and in particular to the popularity of the sonata form promoted by the Italian-educated
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, as well as traditional suites of French dances.
His surviving work includes:
He was also author of a book of music theory published 1745: Le tour du clavier sur tous les tons.
A series of unpublished organ pieces (c. 1756) survive in manuscript (Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève, Paris), and were published by Norbert Dufourcq in 1965 (ed. Schola Cantorum, Paris).