Montéclair, Michel Pignolet [Pinolet] de

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(b Andelot, Haute-Marne, bap. Dec 4, 1667; d Aumont, 22 [not 27] Sept 1737). French composer, theorist and teacher. Michel Pignolet was the youngest of seven children born to the weaver Adrien Pignolet and Suzanne Galliot. On 27 January 1676 he entered the choir school at Langres Cathedral where he studied under Jean-Baptiste Moreau, director of the choir from October 1681 to February 1682. He added the name of ‘Montéclair’ (a fortress in Andelot) to his own some time after his arrival in Paris in 1687, but signed himself ‘Pignolet dit Montéclair’ as late as 1724. From the title-page of his Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la musique (1709), we learn that he was ‘formerly maître de la musique for the Prince of Vaudémont’, whom he followed to Italy. Details of his Italian sojourn are unknown.

Montéclair performed on the basse de violon in the Paris Opéra orchestra as early as ...