A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Baptiste

by Paul David

BAPTISTE, a violin-player, whose real name was Baptiste Anet, a pupil of Corelli, and apparently one of the first to introduce the works and style of his great master at Paris, thereby materially influencing the development of violin-playing in France. When French writers of the period speak of him as an extraordinary phenomenon, and as the first of all violinists, we must remember that at that time instrumental music, and especially the art of violin-playing, was still in its infancy in France. Baptiste did not settle in Paris, in spite of his great success, owing probably to the circumstance of Louis XIV 's exclusive liking for old French music and for Lully. From Paris he went to Poland, where he spent the rest of his life as conductor of the private band of a nobleman. He published three sets of sonatas for the violin; two suites de pièces pour deux musettes, op. 2; and six duos pour deux musettes, op. 3.

[ P. D. ]