Laurent Belissen (1693-1762) - Laudate Pueri

Joyeux anniversaire Laurent Belissen! 👑🙏🏼

Composer: Laurent Belissen (1693-1762)
Work: Laudate Pueri | Motet a grand choeur et Simp. e | Par M.r. Belissen. | Maitre de Musique du Concert de Marseille | & de L'abbaye de Saint Victor de la Meme Ville
Performers: Les Festеs D'Orphéе https://tinyurl.com/zpnyd9ry
Guy Laurеnt (conductor)

Painting: Antoine Coypel (1661-1722) - Portrait of Madame de Maintenon with the natural children of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan (c.1684)
HD image: https://flic.kr/p/2mKeuCC

Further info: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/21447580
Listen free: No available

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Laurent Belissen [Bellissen, Bellissens]
(Aix-en-Provence, 8 August 1693 - Marseilles, 15 July 1762)

French composer. His home was near the Cathedral of St Sauveur in Aix; although there is no evidence that he was admitted to the choir school, he was probably one of the last composers to study with Guillaume Poitevin, maître de musique there. By 1722 Belissen was in Marseilles, where he made his career. He followed Blanchard as maître de musique at the Abbey of St Victor, and held this position for the rest of his life, also directing the Académie de Concerts in Marseilles. Many of Belissen's works are lost or in uncatalogued collections. The extant works, principally grands motets, reveal a style markedly different from the Versailles motets of Lalande, Campra and Mondonville. Belissen preferred a four-voice texture to the five-voice one popular with the Versailles composers. His choral style combines French and Italian characteristics: his choral fugues are highly developed and repeat the text continuously in the Italian manner. His orchestral treatment in the motets also reflects Italian practices, with the use of ritornello passages as an important articulatory device.