Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier

Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier (Abbeville, 1734 – Paris, 1794) was one of the most celebrated organists in late eighteenth-century France. A composer chiefly for keyboard, he is almost always referred to with the addition of "Charpentier", the origin of which is unknown, as most of his compositions were published under that surname.

The son of Jean-Baptiste Beauvarlet, who died in Lyon in 1763 and who, according to his baptismal certificate, was a dye merchant, though he is also described as an organist and instrument maker, Jean-Jacques inherited his father's post at the Hospice de la Charité in Lyon. There he married Marie Birol, a singer known in Lyon and Paris by her husband's surname. The couple had a daughter, born in 1764, and a son, Jacques-Marie. He had already played the organ at the Parisian Concert Spirituel in 1759, but he continued to live in Lyon until 1771. At the Académie des Beaux Arts in that city he served as organist from 1763 and, in December 1765, performed two concerts of his own. Towards the end of his Lyon period, the programmes apparently became increasingly trivial, dominated by tunes and overtures from opéra comique.

In 1771 he became organist of the royal abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris, possibly on the initiative of Monseigneur de Montazet, Archbishop of Lyon and Abbot of Saint-Victor. That same year he returned to the Concert Spirituel, and the following year he succeeded Daquin at Saint-Paul in the Marais. He later added the posts at the chapel of Saint-Eloi des Orfèvres, documented around 1777, and at Notre Dame from 1783, which he shared on a quarterly basis with three other organists.

His most valuable music is perhaps the sonatas for harpsichord or piano with violin accompaniment (opp. 2, 3 and 4, dating from 1772 to 1775), in which Saint-Foix detected the influence of Schobert. His style is that of the early Classical period, with a tendency, especially in op. 3, to imitate orchestral textures. Although thematically unimaginative, they show a notable ability to sustain tension, delaying cadences and maintaining rhythmic energy. His organ music, by contrast, suffers from a poor integration of style and instrument, a weak counterpoint and a hasty, improvisatory form.

Today he is remembered above all as a performer of great renown and as the author of a body of keyboard music that reflected the taste of his time and which, at its best, anticipates features of the classical sonata.