Louis Couperin was a French Baroque composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–1651 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court. He quickly became one of the most prominent Parisian musicians, establishing himself as a harpsichordist, organist, and violist, but his career was cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-five.
Nicolas de Grigny was a French organist and composer. He died young and left behind a single collection of organ music, and an Ouverture for harpsichord.
Nicolas Gigault was a French Baroque organist and composer. Born into poverty, he quickly rose to fame and high reputation among fellow musicians. His surviving works include the earliest examples of noëls and a volume of works representative of the 1650–1675 style of the French organ school.
The French organ school formed in the first half of the 17th century. It progressed from the strict polyphonic music of Jean Titelouze to a unique, richly ornamented style with its own characteristic forms that made full use of the French classical organ. Instrumental in establishing this style were Louis Couperin, who experimented with structure, registration and melodic lines, expanding the traditional polyphonic forms, and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers (1632–1714), who established the distinct forms and styles of what was to become the French organ tradition.
Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers was a French organist, composer and theorist. His first livre d'orgue is the earliest surviving published collection with traditional French organ school forms. Nivers's other music is less known; however, his treatises on Gregorian chant and basso continuo are still considered important sources on 17th century liturgical music and performance practice.
Pierre du Mage was a French Baroque organist and composer. His first music teacher was most likely his father, organist of Beauvais Cathedral. At some point during his youth Dumage moved to Paris and studied under Louis Marchand. He also befriended Nicolas Lebègue, who in 1703 procured for Dumage a position of organist of the Saint-Quentin collegiate church. In 1710 he was appointed titular organist of the Laon Cathedral. Due to strained relations with his superiors in the cathedral chapter, du Mage left on 30 March 1719, at the age of 45, and became a civil servant. He apparently neither played nor composed music professionally until his death.
The French Organ Mass is a type of Low Mass that came into use during the Baroque era. Essentially it is a Low Mass with organ music playing throughout: part of the so-called alternatim practice.
Nicolas Lebègue was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born in Laon and in the 1650s settled in Paris, quickly establishing himself as one of the best organists of the country. He lived and worked in Paris until his death, but frequently made trips to other cities to consult on organ building and maintenance matters. Lebègue's reputation today rests on his keyboard music. He made particularly important contributions to the development of the French organ school by devising pieces with independent pedal parts and developing the Tierce en taille genre. His oeuvre also includes the earliest published unmeasured preludes, as well as some of the earliest known noëls.
Gilles Jullien was a French Baroque composer and organist.
André Raison 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.
Louis-Antoine Dornel was a French composer, harpsichordist, organist and violinist.
Georges Paul Aimé Danion was a French organ builder.
Marina Nikolayevna Tchebourkina is a French and Russian organist and musicologist. She has a Doktor nauk degree in Science of the Arts. Marina Tchebourkina is known as an expert in French Baroque organ art and an ambassador of Russian organ music.
Jean Henri Marcel Boyer was a French organist and a professor of organ at several institutions including the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon.
Norbert Stéphane Jean-Marie Dufourcq was a French organist, music educator, musicologist and musicographer.
Jacques Thomelin, also named Jacques-Denis or Alexandre-Jacques-Denis, was a 17th-century French composer and organist.
Noëlie Marie-Antoinette Pierront was a 20th-century French organist, concertist and music educator.
Jean-Baptiste Marcel Éloi Bonfils was a 20th-century French organist, music educator, musicologist and composer.
Jean-Patrice Brosse was a French harpsichordist and organist.
The Livre d'orgue de Montréal is a music manuscript dating from the 18th century, which contains about 400 organ pieces. It is one of the largest surviving manuscripts of works by the French organ school from the reign of Louis XIV. It was brought to North America by Jean Girard, a French Sulpician clerk born in Bourges, appointed organist and teacher at the Notre-Dame parish in Montreal. Most of the music is anonymous, although a few pieces have been positively identified as works of Nicolas Lebègue.