DAQUIN, LOUIS-CLAUDE  

Showing remarkable talent as a child, the French organist, harpsichordist and composer Louis-Claude Daquin, rejecting an offer from the Sainte Chapelle, became organist at Petit St Antoine at the age of 12, going on to defeat Rameau for the position of organist at St Paul in 1727 and following his teacher Marchand as organist to the Cordeliers in 1732. In 1739 he succeeded Dandrieu as an organist of the royal chapel.

Keyboard and Instrumental Music

Daquin’s legacy remains in a collection of four harpsichord suites and a set of a dozen Christmas noëls.