About author : JACQUET de LA GUERRE Elisabeth

JACQUET de LA GUERRE Elisabeth

Elisabeth Jacquet was born into an important family of musicians and masons in the parish of Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, Paris.

A childhood prodigy, she played the harpsichord before King Louis XIV to inaugurate her career as a virtuoso performer at the age of five. At the court of Louis XIV she was noticed by Madame de Montespan, and was kept on in her entourage. She later married the organist Marin de La Guerre in 1684 and left the court. Thereafter she was known as Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. After her marriage she taught and gave concerts at home and throughout Paris, and gained much acclaim.

A quote from Titon du Tillet speaks of her "marvellous facility for playing preludes and fantasies off the cuff. Sometimes she improvises one or another for a whole half hour with tunes and harmonies of great variety and in quite the best possible taste, quite charming her listeners." (Le Parnasse Français, 1732)

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