Richer

André-François-Joseph Richer (Paris, 1712 – Versailles, 7 September 1757) was a French singer and composer from a family of musicians. Trained alongside Delalande and Bernier while a page in the Musique du roi, he rose through the various posts of the royal chapel until becoming chantre of the Chapel in 1757, the year of his death.

In 1729 he entered the Musique du roi as an ordinaire, and in 1747 became chantre de la Chambre. From 1741 he was superintendent of music to the Dukes of Orléans and of Chartres. He composed cantatas and motets, some of which were performed at the Concert Spirituel. Married to Elisabeth Leroy, he had three children who became musicians.

Louis Augustin (Versailles, 1740 – Paris, 1819) was a page in the royal chapel between 1748 and 1756, music master to the Dukes of Chartres and Bourbon and, in 1780, secured the reversion of the post of music master to the Enfants de France. Antoine François (1739–1818), a singer and violinist, worked at the court of Parma. Angélique Henriette Elisabeth (1741–1809), a harpsichordist and singer, married F.-A. D. Philidor, her mother's first cousin, in 1760.

The family illustrates how court offices passed musical trades down from generation to generation.