A child prodigy, Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665 – 1729) was a French musician, harpsichordist and pianist. “Born into a family of musicians and master music-makers”, Jacquet earned great acclaim by performing to King Louise XIV from a very young age. As a teenager, Elisabeth was accepted into the French court, where she was educated by Madame de Montespan (or Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan), the king’s mistress.
Once the Royal Court had moved to Versailles, in 1682, Elisabeth remained in Paris and soon married the organist Marin de la Guerre, with whom she had one son. However, she was “met with a twin tragedy”, in 1704, as she lost both her husband and their 10-year-old son. Elisabeth coped with these disasters through shifting her work towards home concerts, which became very popular.
Throughout her career, Elisabeth was a famous figure – which was unusual for the Baroque period as a women composer. She composed in a wide variety of forms, ranging from operas (she was the first French women composer to write an opera) to cantatas, from sonatas to ballets. Unfortunately, many of these pieces have been lost since. The remnants of her music were rediscovered again by contemporary audiences in the 1990s.
Here is a clip of Elisabeth’s Sonata No. 2 in D major:
Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre – Sonata n°2 in D major for violin and continuo (complete), posted by AlbertoMusicalLab
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lisabeth_Jacquet_de_La_Guerre
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/elisabeth-claude-jacquet-de-la-guerre-470.php
classicalexburns.com/2019/07/05/elisabeth-jacquet-de-la-guerre-sonata-no-2-a-marvel-of-our-century/
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