André Raison

Biography

André Raison (c. 1640 – 1719) was a French Baroque composer and organist. During his lifetime he was one of the most famous French organists and an important influence on French organ music. He published two collections of organ works, in 1688 and 1714. The first contains liturgical music intended for monasteries and a preface with information on contemporary performance practice. The second contains mostly noëls (variations on Christmas carols).

Life

The exact date and place of Raison's birth are unknown. He was born in the 1640s, possibly in or near the town of Nanterre (today a suburb of Paris). He was educated there at the seminary of the Church of St. Geneviève (today a commune of Paris). Raison's later life was evidently greatly influenced by the experiences at St. Geneviève. Writing in 1687 or 1688 (in the preface to his Premier livre d’orgue, published in 1688) the composer mentioned that he found the purpose of his life while studying at the seminary. Around 1665–66 Raison was appointed organist of the Abbey of St Genevieve in Paris, another place connected to St Genevieve and one that owned the land on which the Nanterre church stood.
In Paris Raison first lived in a room in "The Guardian Angel", a house in Rue Saint Etienne des Grez, two city blocks away from the abbey. Apparently this was a very modest accommodation, yet Raison remained there for more than twenty years. After 1687–88 he moved to a much larger house at the intersection of the Rue Saint Etienne des Grez and Cholets. His life was improving steadily, and a tax register of 1695 places him in the top rank of Parisian organists, along with François Couperin, Jean-Henri d'Anglebert, Nicolas Gigault, Nicolas de Grigny, and Louis Marchand. Finally, Raison's Second livre d'orgue, published in 1714, indicates that at that time he worked as organist at the church of the Jacobins at Rue St. Jacques in Paris. He died a few years later in 1719, and was succeeded at the Jacobins church by his most illustrious pupil, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault. Clérambault's Premier livre d'orgue (1710) was dedicated to Raison.
Although Raison was somewhat interested in politics (at least twice he produced pieces inspired by political events: an offertory from Premier livre d'orgue is dedicated to Louis XIV's entrance into the city hall on 30 January 1687, and several pieces in Second livre d'orgue commemorate the "long desired peace" that followed the Treaty of Utrecht). As far as the circumstances of his life are known, he seems to have been an exceptionally private and pious person. No record of Raison travelling or acting as organ consultant survives. His Premier livre d'orgue contains extensive instructions for inexperienced church musicians. He apparently never played at court and was not known by the associations there. His contacts with other organists were probably limited, and he was not mentioned in Évrard Titon du Tillet's famous Le Parnasse François, a 1732 book of biographies of famous French musicians. The Lettres sur les hommes célèbres du siècle de Louis XV, a similar book by the son of organist and composer Louis-Claude Daquin, also does not contain any mention of Raison, even though Raison's pupil Clérambault is given due praise.