French composer (1729-1817) born into the gentry and educated in Saint Omer. He moved to Paris in 1749 to work in finance but soon turned to music, composing his first comic operas in 1759 for the Foire Saint-Germain theatre. From then on he regularly composed for various Paris establishments and became a well-known name. However, the 1789 Revolution obliterated him from the world of music. He was only reinstated in 1800 on becoming Inspector at the Paris Conservatoire and later member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the wake of Grétry in 1813.
