Gabriel Expilly

Pierre Gabriel Expilly (c. 1630 – c. 1690) was a 17th-century French viol player and composer. Biography Gabriel Expilly’s origin and education are unknown. The name is of Savoie origin (Savoie, Isère). Sub-Master of the Chapelle du roi His first known job was as a sub-master of the Chapelle Royale of Versailles. The death of Jean Veillot had been the occasion to renew the position of sub-master, which had been divided into quarters (trimesters). In two stages, it seems that the positions fell to Thomas Gobert, Pierre Robert, Henry Du Mont and Gabriel Expilly. For Expilly, his quarter seems to be the result of the duplication of the semiannual charge, first passed to Thomas Gobert and had been the subject of a competition in 1663, if one believes what Pierre Perrin writes in the preface to his Cantica pro capella regis (1665): ::S’il luy plaist à Louis XIV de se ressouvenir du succès qu’ont eu plusieurs de ces cantiques, lorsqu’ils ont été chantez dans sa Chapelle ; entr’autres celuy du Martyr que luy fit entendre le sieur Expilly, lors de sa concurrence à la maistrise, qui ravit toute vostre cour, & qui fit dire à Votre Majesté qu’il avait combattu avec des armes avantageuses; & e