Nicolas Goupillet

Who is Nicolas Goupillet?

Nicolas Goupillet also Coupillet or Goupillier was a French Baroque composer - albeit a composer who may not have himself composed all of his works.

In 1683 the then fifty-year old "Sun King" Louis XIV commanded that a competition be held to select four rotating seasonal choirmasters to replace the retiring Henry Du Mont and at the Chapelle royale. Of the 35 applicants, four were selected: Michel Richard Delalande, then the late Lully's assistant Pascal Colasse; Guillaume Minoret a minor figure from Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois; and finally Nicolas Goupillet, from Meaux.

Goupillet was dismissed from the Chapelle Royale in 1693 when it was discovered that he had been passing off as his own compositions the works of Henry Desmarets - a talented composer who had passed over because of his youth in the competition 10 years earlier. At first the story went around that Desmarets had simply heard his works performed by chance, later suspicions were aroused that Desmarets had been complicit in the deception and blown the whistle when Goupillet failed to pay him.