Robert de Visée

Robert de Visée (1652-1730) was a French lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of the kings Louis XIV and Louis XV, as well as a singer and a composer for lute, theorbo and guitar. Biography Robert de Visée was born in 1652, in La Flèche, France. He probably knew Francesco Corbetta and would have been familiar with his music. wrote that he studied with Corbetta and this information has been repeated uncritically in later sources including Strizich and Ledbetter 2001. It is however unsupported by documentary evidence . de Visée is first mentioned (by Le Gallois) in 1680, and at about that time he became a chamber musician to Louis XIV, in which capacity he often performed at court. In 1709, he was appointed as a singer of the royal chamber, and in 1719 was named ‘Guitar Master of the King’ (Maître de Guitare du Roi) to Louis XV, the ten-year-old great-grandson of Louis XIV, who succeeded to the throne in 1715. Jean Rousseau reported in a letter of 1688 that Visée was a respected musician at Versailles and played the viol . He died in Paris on February 15, 1730, leaving his son François de Visée as his sole heir. Works Visée published two books of guitar music t