Gilles Jullien

Almost nothing is known of his life or training. His burial record gives his age as fifty or slightly less: he was therefore born between 1650 and 1653, in Paris according to the French Wikipedia article and the BnF. He became organist of Notre-Dame de Chartres in 1668 according to the French article and the BnF; the English article gives 6 December 1667, a date it considers questionable, but it is certain that he was appointed very young. He kept the post until his death in Chartres on 14 September 1703. His eldest son, Jean-François, succeeded him and was dismissed on 27 July 1709.

The collection, engraved in Paris by Henry Lesclop, bears a privilege dated 2 December 1690. It is dedicated to the dean, canons and chapter of Chartres and announces that it contains “the eight church tones for solemn feasts, with a motet of St Cecilia for three voices and symphony”. Its eighty or so pieces fall into eight groups, one for each tone; they are often called suites, but the IMSLP editor points out that Jullien does not use the word and that the organist chose among the pieces in a given tone. The French article notes that he knew the works of Nivers, Lebègue and Gigault; the influence of Lebègue predominates.

According to the preface these pieces are intended for the liturgy, but the only explicit link with plainchant is a fugue on Ave maris stella. There are four- and five-voice fugues and five-part preludes; Jullien claims to have invented these five-voice pieces, although Gigault, in 1685, and Raison had already published some. Critics have found his fugues and his chromatic writing rather crude and preferred his preludes and récits de dessus. The book ends, unusually, with a vocal piece, the St Cecilia motet for three voices, two treble parts and continuo, which the English article names Cantantibus organis.

Another vocal work, La Crèche de Bethléem, is known only by its title, and a second organ book, apparently planned, never appeared. Norbert Dufourcq republished the Premier livre in 1952.