Jean marie leclair biography of michaels

​LÉCLAIR, Jean-Marie, l'ainé (so called to distinguish him from his brother Antoine-Remi), an eminent violin-player, and composer for his instrument, was born at Lyons in 1697 [App. p.698 "Paris, Nov. 23, 1687"]. Although his father was a member of the royal band, he began his public life not as a musician but as a dancer at the Rouen theatre. Later on he went to Turin, as ballet master, where Somis was so much pleased with some ballet-music of his, that he induced him to take up the violin, which up to this time he had cultivated as a secondary pursuit only, and to place himself under his tuition for two years. At the end of that period Somis declared that he had nothing more to teach him. Nevertheless Léclair appears to have continued his studies for a considerable time before going to Paris in 1729. In Paris his success was never great; whether from want of ambition and a retiring disposition, or, as has been sugges