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{{short description|French composer and conductor}}
'''André Campra''' ({{IPA|fr|kɑ̃pʁa|lang}}; baptized 4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744) was a French [[composer]] and [[Conducting|conductor]] of the [[Baroque music|Baroque era.]] The leading French opera composer in the period between [[Jean-Baptiste Lully]] and [[Jean-Philippe Rameau]], Campra wrote several ''[[Tragédie en musique|tragédies en musique]]'' and ''[[opéra-ballet]]s'' that were extremely well received. He also wrote three books of [[cantata]]s as well as religious music, including a [[Music for the Requiem Mass|requiem]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Holden |editor-first= Amanda |title= The New Penguin Opera Guide |location= New York |publisher= Penguin Putnam |year= 2001 |isbn= 0-14-029312-4 |page= [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780140514759/page/180 180] |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780140514759/page/180 }}</ref><ref>Anthony, James R. "Campra, André". [http://www.grovemucic.com Grove Music Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126132318/https://grovemucic.com/ |date=2022-11-26 }} (subscription access)</ref>
{{Infobox person
| name          = André Campra
| image         = André Campra.jpg
| alt           =
| caption       = 1725 portrait
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = December 4, 1660
| birth_place   = [[Aix-en-Provence]], France
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1744|6|29|1660|12|4}}
| death_place   = [[Versailles, Yvelines]], France
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Composer, conductor
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
}}

==Biography==
Campra was the son of Giovanni Francesco Campra, a surgeon and violinist from [[Graglia]], Italy, and Louise Fabry, from [[Aix-en-Provence]]. His father was his first music teacher. He was baptised on 4 December 1660 in the [[Église de la Madeleine (Aix-en-Provence)|Église de la Madeleine]] in Aix.<ref>Maurice Barthélémy, ''André Campra – 1660–1744'', Arles: Actes Sud, 1995</ref> He became a choirboy in the [[Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur (Aix-en-Provence)|Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur]] there in 1674 and commenced ecclesiastical studies four years later. He was reprimanded by his superiors in 1681 for having taken part in theatrical performances without permission, but was nevertheless made a chaplain on 27 May of that year.

He served as ''maître de musique'' (music director) at the cathedrals of [[Arles]] and [[Toulouse]] and then, from 1694 to 1700, served in a similar capacity at the cathedral of [[Notre-Dame de Paris]]. André Campra introduced violins into the performance of sacred music at the Cathedral of Paris, an innovation that proved controversial at a time when the instrument was still associated with popular street music. In 1697 he began composing for the theatre, initially publishing some works under his brother’s name in order to safeguard his reputation with ecclesiastical authorities. He resigned his position at Notre-Dame in 1700 and thereafter devoted himself to theatrical composition, achieving considerable critical success. By 1705 he had attained such prominence as a composer that he became the subject of hostile commentary in the press. From 1720 onward, he restricted his activity to the composition of sacred music.

Although Campra had obtained critical success he lacked financial security. In 1722 he was engaged briefly as ''maître de musique'' by the [[Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti|Prince of Conti]]. After the death of the regent [[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Philippe d'Orléans]] in December 1723, Campra became ''sous-maître'' at the Royal Chapel in Versailles. In 1730 he became the ''Inspecteur Général'' at the [[Académie Royale de Musique|Opéra]] (Royal Academy of Music).

He died in [[Versailles, Yvelines|Versailles]] on 29 June 1744 at the age of 83.

==Music and style==
{{expand section|date=June 2015}}
''L'Europe galante'' (1697), which Campra wrote with librettist [[Antoine Houdar de la Motte]], is often cited as the first [[opéra-ballet]], as it was the first work of French opera to feature characters from the contemporary world rather than from mythology, as well as the first to employ comic intrigue as a part of the dramatic structure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anthony |first=James R. |date=1966 |title=Thematic Repetition in the Opera-Ballets of André Campra |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/741038 |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=209–220 |doi=10.1093/mq/LII.2.209 |jstor=741038 |issn=0027-4631}}</ref> ''L'Europe galante'' followed the structure of Pascale Colasse's ''Ballet des Saisons'', which introduced the opéra-ballet structure by which each act contains an independent action but featured mythological (rather than contemporary) characters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anthony |first=James R. |date=1965 |title=The French Opera-Ballet in the Early 18th Century: Problems of Definition and Classification |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/830683 |journal=Journal of the American Musicological Society |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=197–206 |doi=10.2307/830683 |jstor=830683 |issn=0003-0139}}</ref>

==Principal works==
{{colbegin}}
'''Stage works'''
* ''[[L'Europe galante]]'', opéra-ballet (1697)
* ''[[Le carnaval de Venise]]'', opéra-ballet (1699)
* ''[[Le Destin du Nouveau Siècle]]'', opéra-ballet (1700)
* ''[[Hésione]]'', tragédie en musique  (1700)
* ''Aréthuse'', opéra-ballet (1701)
* ''[[Tancrède]]'', tragédie en musique (1702)
* ''Les muses'', opéra-ballet (1703)
* ''[[Iphigénie en Tauride (Campra)|Iphigénie en Tauride]]'', tragédie en musique (1704)
* ''[[Télémaque (Campra)|Télémaque]]'', tragédie en musique pastiche (1704)
* ''[[Alcine]]'', tragédie en musique (1705)
* ''[[Hippodamie]]'', tragédie en musique (1708)
* ''[[Les fêtes vénitiennes]]'', opéra-ballet (1710)
* ''[[Idoménée]]'', tragédie en musique (1712)
* ''[[Télèphe]]'', tragédie en musique (1713)
* ''Énée et Didon'', fête musicale (1714)
* ''[[Camille, reine des volsques]]'', tragédie en musique (1717)
* ''[[Les âges]]'', opéra-ballet (1718)
* ''[[Achille et Déidamie]]'', tragédie en musique (1735)

'''Cantatas'''
* Book I 1708 – Hebe. L'Heureux jaloux. Didon. Daphne. Arion. Les femmes.
* Book II 1714 – Les Heureux Epoux, Silène, Achille oisif, La Dispute de l'Amour et de l'Hymen, La danse de Flore, Enée et Didon.
* Book III 1728 – L'heureux moment, Les caprices de l'Amour, La colère d'Achille, Les plaisirs de la campagne, Le papillon, Le jaloux, Le lys et la rose<ref>James R. Anthony ''La musique en France à l'époque baroque: de Beaujoyeulx à Rameau'' 1981 "Enée et Didon (Livre III), qui est pratiquement une cantate-opéra, mettant en scène deux protagonistes,&nbsp;... Dans les cantates plus tardives de Campra, l'usage systématique de tous les procédés lyriques se conjugue avec une utilisation&nbsp;..."</ref>

'''Sacred works'''
* ''Nisi Dominus'' (1722) 
* ''Requiem'' (after 1723)
* ''Motets for the royal chapel'' (1723–1741)
* ''Te Deum''
{{colend}}

==Legacy==
* [[Darius Milhaud]] based his 1936 orchestral work ''[[Suite provençale]]'' on 18th-century themes, including some by Campra.
* A theme from Campra's opera ''Camille, reine des Volsques'' (1717) was used as the basis of the [[Classical music written in collaboration|collaborative work]] ''[[La guirlande de Campra]]'', a set of variations created by seven French composers in 1952.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Porter|first1=Andrew|title=Festivals in France|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/09/28/92671406.pdf |access-date=12 June 2015|work=New York Times|date=28 September 1952}}</ref>
* The "Rigaudon" from his opera ''Idoménée'', in an arrangement for organ, is probably his most familiar work, often used as a wedding processional and often recorded.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Barron|first1=James|title=Weddings March to New Tunes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/24/style/weddings-march-to-new-tunes.html |access-date=12 June 2015|work=New York Times|date=24 June 1983}}</ref>
* The ''Collège Campra'', a state-owned [[secondary school]] in the centre of [[Aix-en-Provence]] is named for him and houses a statue of him.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Maurice Barthélemy, ''André Campra: sa vie et son oeuvre (1660–1744)'' (Éditions A. et J. Picard, 1957)
* [[Catherine Cessac]], ed., ''Itinéraires d'André Campra (1660–1744)'' (Editions Mardaga, 2012)
* Jean Duron, ''André Campra: un musicien provençal à Paris'' (Editions Mardaga, 2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_aBKPfs3GT4C& available online]
* {{cite journal|title=Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris? Louis XIV and the Politics of Subversion at the Paris Opéra | first=Georgia |last= Cowart | journal=Journal of the American Musicological Society |volume=54 |issue= 2  |date=Summer 2001 |pages= 265–302| jstor= 10.1525/jams.2001.54.2.265 | doi=10.1525/jams.2001.54.2.265}}
* [[Jean-Paul C. Montagnier]]: ''The Polyphonic Mass in France, 1600-1780: The Evidence of the Printed Choirbooks,'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Campra, André|cname=André Campra}}
* {{ChoralWiki}}
{{André Campra}}
{{Baroque music}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campra, Andre}}
[[Category:1660 births]]
[[Category:1744 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century French classical composers]]
[[Category:18th-century French male musicians]]
[[Category:French ballet composers]]
[[Category:French Baroque composers]]
[[Category:French composers of sacred music]]
[[Category:French opera composers]]
[[Category:French people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:French male opera composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Aix-en-Provence]]
[[Category:17th-century French male musicians]]
[[Category:People from Provence (French province)]]