Nicolas Chédeville

Nicolas Chédeville (20 February 1705 – 6 August 1782) was a French composer, musette player and musette maker.

Nicolas Chédeville was born in Serez, Normandy; musicians Pierre Chédeville (1694–1725) and Esprit Philippe Chédeville (1696–1762) were his brothers. Louis Hotteterre was his great uncle and godfather, and may have given him instruction in music and turning instruments. He began playing the oboe and musette (a bagpipe-like instrument commonly used in French baroque music) in the Paris Opera orchestra in the 1720s. After Jean Hotteterre's death in 1732, he took over his post in Les Grands Hautbois, the royal oboe band. He retired from the opera in July 1748, though returned occasionally to play the musette there. When he was nearly 70, he married the younger daughter of a valet who had once worked for the Duc d'Orléans, and was still describing himself as musette player to the king. In his last years he experienced financial difficulties. His ten houses were signed over to creditors in 1774, following which he separated from his wife. He resigned from Les Grands Hautbois in 1777, petitioned for bankruptcy in 1778 and died in Paris four years later. Lawyers were still trying to settle his affairs in 1790.

La Borde called him "the most celebrated musette player France had ever had", though he mistakenly held the opinion that he was dead by 1780, two years before he met his end. He taught the musette to Princess Victoire from about 1750, and became a popular teacher among the aristocracy, eventually attaining the title of maître de musette de Mesdames de France. He was also a musette maker, and extended the instrument's compass in the bass down to c' (middle C).

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