Moreau, Jean-Baptiste (1656–1733)

French composer. He learnt music as a boy chorister at Angers Cathedral and composed motets as a youth. He was appointed choirmaster at the cathedral of Langres (where he married), and later at Dijon. He went to Paris during the 1680s and found his way into the court, for which he began to write stage pieces. In 1688 he was commissioned to write music for Racine's Esther for performance at the young ladies' academy of Saint-Cyr. This earned him a pension for life and an appointment at Saint-Cyr jointly with the organist Nivers and later with Clérambault. He remained under the patronage of the king and Mme de Maintenon. He taught both singing and composition, among his pupils for the former were his daughter Claude-Marie Moreau ,and for the latter Clérambault, Dandrieu, and Montéclair.

Works Church music Requiem, motet In exitu Israel (1691), Cantiques spirituels (Racine), Te Deum for the king's recovery (1687) and other.

Other stage divertissements including Les Bergers de Marly; chorus for Racine's Athalie (1691); Idylle sur la naissance de Notre Seigneur; drinking songs.