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Jean-Féry Rebel
April 18, 1666 - January 2, 1747
born in Paris, France, composed during the Baroque period
Biography
A leading composer of the fascinatingly ingrown French Baroque, Jean-Baptiste-Féry Rebel was, comparatively speaking, a musical progressive. He was baptized on April 18, 1666 into a musical Parisian family. His father, Jean Rebel, was a singer and probably a dancer in the court of Louis XIV, and his uncle was one of the King¹s chamber musicians. His elder sister Anne-Renée was also a singer (who married Michel-Richard de Lalande), and his younger half-brother was a musician to the Prince of Monaco. Jean-Féry was the most famous of Jean¹s children. No doubt he was educated in music by his family.

By the age of eight he was taken to play violin before the King and his favorite composer, Lully, who were amazed at his abilities. It is also said that Lully played through and praised his first attempt at an opera. Rebel became a first violinist at the Académie Royale de Musique. In 1700 he was selected to join a group of musicians sent by the Count of Ayen to entertain at the wedding of Philip of Anjou in Spain, and five years later he was appointed a member of the select orchestra known as the Vingt-quatre violons du roi--The Twenty-Four Violins of the King.

He was also awarded the right to inherit the position of chamber composer for the king, which was held by his brother-in-law de Lalande, and did in fact assume it on de Lalande¹s death in 1718.
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