Robert De Visée, Chaconne

Robert de Visée's place and date of birth are unknown. He probably knew Francesco Corbetta and would have been familiar with his music. Fétis (1865, pp. 365–66) claimed that he studied with Corbetta and this information has been repeated uncritically in later sources including Strizich and Ledbetter 2001. It is however unsupported by any documentary evidence (Charnassé, Andia, and Rebours 2001, p. 21). He is first mentioned (by Le Gallois) in 1680, and at about that time became a chamber musician to Louis XIV, in which capacity he often performed at court. In 1709 he was appointed as a singer in the royal chamber, and in 1719 he was named 'Guitar Master of the King' (Maître de Guitare du Roi) to Louis XV, the ten-year-old great-grandson of Louis XIV who succeeded to the throne in 1715. Jean Rousseau reported in a letter of 1688 that Visée was a respected musician at Versailles, and also played the viol (Strizich & Ledbetter 2001). The last payment in his name in state documents is dated 1732. It is to be assumed that he died about that time. (Rebours 2000)

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