Pierre Du Mage

His father, also named Pierre, was organist of the cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Beauvais. He married Marie Du Pré on 5 June 1674; Pierre was the eldest of their five children, three sons and two daughters. The French Wikipedia article gives 23 November 1674 as his date of birth, the English article as his date of baptism. His father was most probably his first teacher.

At about twenty he went to Paris to study with Louis Marchand. There he met Nicolas Lebègue, organist of Saint-Merry and of the Chapelle royale, a native of Laon. Little is known of his relations with Marchand, Michel Rusquet observes; but Du Mage himself claimed the connection. The Archives des maîtres de l’orgue recall that he offered the public pieces written “according to the learned school and in the taste of the illustrious Mr Marchand, his master”, and his preface presents them as his first works, modelled on his former teacher.

In 1703, probably on Lebègue’s recommendation, he was appointed organist of the royal collegiate church of Saint-Quentin, whose large new organ Robert Clicquot had just completed. It was to the chapter of this church that he dedicated his Premier livre d’orgue in 1708. In 1710, after nearly eight years of service, he won the competition for the organ of Laon Cathedral.

In 1711, at thirty-eight, he married Benoîte Carpeau, daughter of the chief clerk of the élection of Laon; the contract describes him as “conseiller du roi”. They had one daughter. On 27 April 1712 the chapter authorised him to publish a second organ book, which he had presented to it and which has never been found. From 1714 to 1716 he supervised the major overhaul of the cathedral organ by the royal builders Robert and Alexandre Clicquot.

Also in charge of the choirboys’ music and of teaching the organ to two of them, he neglected his duties. His relations with the chapter deteriorated; after several reprimands, part of his salary was withheld. He resigned on 30 March 1719, at forty-five, and became superintendent of the royal salt stores of the town.

According to the English article, he never again played or composed professionally. Yet he reappears in 1733, with Clérambault, Daquin and Calvière, among the experts appointed to receive the new organ of Notre-Dame de Paris, built by François Thierry. The French article concludes that his reputation had endured and that he may not have entirely given up the instrument; Rusquet thinks he probably went on playing. Widowed in 1732, he had married Marie Magdeleine Dagneau, by whom he had five children. He died in Laon on 2 October 1751.

The collection of 1708, dedicated “to the Venerable Dean, Canons and Chapter of the Royal Church of St Quentin”, makes up his entire known output. It contains a single suite in the first tone, in eight pieces: Plein jeu, Fugue, Trio, Tierce en taille, Basse de trompette, Récit, Duo and Grand jeu, the usual forms of the French organ of his day.

The work is slender, but historians agree on its quality. Félix Raugel and Willi Apel singled out the Récit for its delicate and gentle lyricism; Apel also praised the Tierce en taille and the Grand jeu. The French article places the book at the summit of the French organ school, alongside those of François Couperin, Nicolas de Grigny, Marchand and Clérambault; the English article on Marchand counts it among the most important works of the late years of that school. Brigitte François-Sappey, quoted on Musicologie.org, sees in it a classical work in the full sense of the term, nourished by the best models. Alexandre Guilmant republished it in the third volume of the Archives des maîtres de l’orgue. The suite is in the site’s repertoire, complete and piece by piece.