Marin Marais is the son of Vincent Marais. He entered the choir school of St. Germain-I’ Auxerrois in 1667. His uncle Louis Marais was an Anglican priest of the church which was supported by royal patronage. He remained there until 1672 and received an excellent musical education by François Chaperon. Marais began to learn viol before finished his studies with the famous bass viol player Sainte-Colombe. About 1675, he was playing an orchestra musician in the Opéra orchestra in Paris. Thanks to Lully, director of the Opéra, he took part in the first performance of Atys at court in 1676 and pursued his instrumental career therefrom 1679. And because of Lully’s excellent training, Marais soon becomes a composer.

 

As a viol virtuoso, Marais was one of the first French instrumentalists that make his reputation as a soloist because of his remarkable and complex techniques which he developed. His pleasing tone had a rare power, thanks to an ‘airy’ style of playing which made full use of open strings and their harmonics. His performances, full of charm and fire, captivated his contemporaries, who said that he played ‘like an angel’. Composer and performer were closely linked, for at this time soloists concentrated on playing their own works at concerts. However, Marais was also a teacher. Although he never wrote a treatise on the viol, his prefaces form a collection of precepts dealing with playing of ornaments, continuo realization and the notation of the fingering and bowing which were adopted by his successors. 

 

From the end of the 17th century, his fame spread beyond the frontiers of France, and he attained the peak of his career in 1706 with the first performance of his tragédie en musique Alcyone. At this time he had just replaced Campra as a conductor of the opera orchestra.