Biography (read more)
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist, and organist, born 12 May 1703 in Turin and died 11 January 1755 in Paris. He settled in Paris in 1725 and in 1734 was appointed maître de musique des enfants de France, responsible for the musical education of the children of Louis XV. From 1748 he co-directed the Concert Spirituel series with violinist Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, and he worked at the Paris Opéra across the 1730s and 1750s, composing six operas including the ballet héroïque Zaïde, reine de Grenade.
Royer is remembered chiefly for his brilliant and often extravagant harpsichord music, epitomized by the virtuosic “La Marche des Scythes” that closes his first book of harpsichord pieces, a style that pushed the instrument’s technical and dramatic range beyond that of most French contemporaries. His harpsichord works have seen a modern revival through recordings by period-instrument specialists, most notably Jean Rondeau’s 2016 album Vertigo: Rameau, Royer.
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