Jean-François Dandrieu

Jean-François Dandrieu, also spelled D’Andrieu (c. 168217 January 1738) was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist. Biography Dandrieu was born in Paris into a family of artists and musicians. A gifted and precocious child, he gave his first public performances when he was 5 years old, playing the harpsichord for King Louis XIV, and his court. These concerts marked the beginning of Dandrieu’s very successful career as harpsichordist and organist. He was a student of Jean-Baptiste Moreau. In 1700, aged 18, he started playing the organ at the Saint-Merri church in Paris (a post previously occupied by Nicolas Lebègue) and became its titular organist in 1705. At some point in 1706 he was a member of the panel of judges who examined Jean-Philippe Rameau’s skills to appoint him organist of the Sainte-Madeleine en la Cité church (incidentally, a post Rameau declined). In 1721 he was appointed one of the four organists of the Chapelle royale of France. In 1733, he succeeded his uncle, the organist and priest Pierre Dandrieu (1664–1733) to become the organist of the (now destroyed) church of St Barthélémy in the Île de la Cité, a post he combined with duties at Saint-Merri (