Pierre Desvignes

Pierre Desvignes (27 September 1764 – 27 January 1827) was a French composer. Life Born in Velars-sur-Ouche (Burgundy) (modern department of Côte-d’Or), from a family of modest farmers, Desvignes was quickly noticed for his voice and admitted as Altar server (child singing in the choir) of the . He received extensive training there, designed to turn these young singers into future professional performers. He then received further training at the musical school of the Dijon Cathedral where he had the chance to have as his teacher Jean-François Lesueur, who had himself been trained in chœurs d’église (in Picardy) before the French Revolution in 1789. It was there that Desvignes composed his first major work in 1780, a 4-part Mass. Resolutely modern in inspiration, this small piece (a four-part choir and four soloists, without instruments) requires high level performers: for centuries, all members of the church choirs were professional, until the brutal suppression of the ecclesiastical chapters in 1790. Lesueur then had him appointed Kapellmeister to the Évreux Cathedral. He was 17 years old. Desvignes stayed only a few months in this position, which he left in 1782 to become chapel