Louis Marchand

Louis Marchand
(b Lyons, 2 Feb 1669; d Paris, 17 Feb 1732). French harpsichordist, organist and composer.

According to Titon du Tillet, who gave his forename as Jean-Louis, his father Jean Marchand was ‘un organiste mediocre’. Not so Louis: by the same authority, he was so gifted that he obtained the post of organist at Nevers Cathedral when he was 14 and at Auxerre when he was 24; he later moved to Paris where he was offered almost all the posts then vacant. Titon exaggerated; and his assertion that Marchand was appointed to Auxerre at the age of 24 is disproved by documentary evidence showing that by the age of 20 he was in Paris – in 1689 he married a Parisian, Marie Angélique Denis, and by 1691 he was organist of the Jesuit church in rue St Jacques (from this early association with the Jesuits sprang Fontenay’s colourful account of Marchand’s being taken in, literally off the streets, by members of that order). Some years later the Mercure de France (August 1699) reveals that he had also acquired posts at St Benoît and the Cordeliers; the title-pages of his two harpsichord books, published in 1702, provide confirmation. In 1703 he occupied the tribune at St Honoré, only to retire from the position in 1707. About this time he entered royal service, replacing Nivers officially as one of the organistes du roi in 1708. Such was Marchand’s reputation that he was not required to compete for the vacancy (or so d’Aquin de Château-Lyon stated). In 1713 he undertook an extensive tour of Germany, where he played before the emperor and various electors. In September 1717 the Dresden court was to have been the scene of a contest between Marchand and J.S. Bach. Only German sources describe this unflattering episode in Marchand’s career (principally F.W. Marpurg, J.A. Birnbaum and Jacob Adlung); all agree that Marchand slipped away before the arrival of the celebrated Weimar organist. Titon, either through tact or ignorance, was of the opinion that Marchand’s return to Paris shortly after the Dresden débâcle was due to homesickness. On his return he was taken in by the Cordeliers, whose organist he remained until the end of his days. During these final years he was much sought after in society as a teacher; d’Aquin was the most eminent of his pupils.