Andre Danican Philidor

André Danican Philidor was a French performer, composer, and librarian who served in King Louis XIV's court at Versailles. His most important legacy was his work in preserving historical manuscripts including the 59-volume Philidor Collection. Philidor's actual birth date is unknown but is estimated to be around 1652. His father Jean Danican played the oboe and cromorne at the royal Grande Ecurie, beginning in the 1640s. Danican, and his older brother Michel adopted the name "Philidor" when King Louis XIII compared them to the great Italian oboist Filidori of Siena. In 1659 as a child, André Philidor joined the royal Cromornes et Trompettes Marines, taking the place of his recently deceased uncle. He performed with the Royal Musketeers as an oboist from 1667 to 1677 and stayed active as a performer in the royal courts until at least the 1690s. He was married in 1672 to Marguerite Mouginot, and they had 17 children during their first 25 years together. Documentation suggests that Philidor began working with Francois Fossard as the music librarian at the royal library in the 1680s, although he claimed to have started in the 1660s. They were responsible for collecting and preserving music manuscripts from as far back as the 1200s, which is now known as the Philidor Collection. In 1685 he sold his position in the Cromornes et Trompettes Marines to a musician named Dumont. As a composer he wrote several occasional pieces, fanfares, and marches, but most of his larger-scale works are from a period from 1687 to 1688, when Lully died. This was possibly an effort to be considered for Lully's prestigious post of surintendant de la musique de la chambre du roi, or maybe he was merely trying to fill the void left by the composer's death. Regardless, the position was given to Michel Richard De Lalande in 1689, and Philidor continued as the king's music librarian. Over the next ten years, he copied music for the king and many other aristocratic patrons, and he also published a volume of Italian airs from the king's collection. In 1700, he and his son and nephew composed divertissements to entertain the Duchess of Bergundy. Two years later Fossard died, leaving Philidor the sole music librarian at the royal library. By 1714, his wife had passed away, but he was eventually remarried five years later to Elisabeth Le Roy and they had six children together. Philidor retired in 1722, but continued working in the library until he passed away in 1730. The Philidor Collection is currently kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris and in the Bibliothèque Municipale, Versailles. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi