Michel Corrette

Michel Corrette (10 April 1707 – 21 January 1795) was a French composer, organist and author of musical method books. Life Corrette’s father, Gaspard Corrette, was an organist and composer. Little is known of his early life. In 1726, Corrette entered into a competition for the post of organist at the Church of Sainte Marie-Madeleine in Paris, but was not selected. He then earned his living as a music teacher (which in fact made him more money than he would have as an organist), and in 1727 he published his first collections of sonatas for various instruments such as the flute, violin, brass, musette, and hurdy-gurdy. On 8 January 1733, Corrette married Marie-Catherine Morize, with whom he had two children, Marie-Anne (1734 - ca. 1822), and a son, Pierre-Michel (1744 - 1801), who also became an organist. In 1737, Corrette was appointed as the organist at the Church of Sainte-Marie du Temple in Paris - a position he held for 54 years until 1791. In 1742, he wrote a so-called “Turkish” concerto in honour of the Ottoman Ambassador to France, Yirmisekizzade Mehmed Said Pasha, who was a great admirer of French culture. In addition to his post at the Sainte Marie Church, he served as orga