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Denis Gaultier
1603 - January 1672
born in Marseille, France, composed during the Baroque period
Biography
Denis Gaultier was a leading lute player in Paris in the early Baroque era, and also a notable composer for the instrument.

There were many lutenists with the name Gaultier, or close variants of it. Denis was cousin to Ennemond Gaultier, but related to none of the other prominent Gaultiers. Ennemond was born at Nèves, near Villette in 1575, and died near there in 1651. Ennemond is often referred to as le vieux Gaultier or Gaultier de Lyons, while Denis is called Gaultier le jeune or Gaultier de Paris, so that the two can be distinguished. Even so, during the time that their lives overlapped there is considerable confusion. Ennemond obtained a high appointment around 1600 and became a famous court lutenist and teacher. As the younger Denis quickly became famous, writers of the time did not usually make the effort to identify which they are talking about, so misattributions of their music and events in their lives persist up until the time that Ennemond left Paris to retire in 1631. Things are not made easier for the historian by the fact that both men were in the habit of signing the works with just their surname.

Denis was a pupil of Charles Racquet. He came to Paris as a young man and quickly became well known.