Jean-Baptiste Volumier

Jean Baptiste Volumier (ca. 1670 - 7 October 1728) was an eighteenth century violinist, composer and concertmaster.

Volumier was born in around 1670 or 1677. Sources differ. He was probably born in the Spanish Flanders although some earlier sources indicate simply that he was born in Spain. As a young man he was schooled in music in Paris, possibly at the French court, and it was the then fashionable French style that he would follow as a performer and composer. Moving to Berlin, in 1692 he gained a position as a violinist in the court orchestra of the Electorate of Brandenburg. He quickly gained promotion through the ranks, emerging as the court concertmaster ("Maitre de Concert"), taking care of ballet and dance. He composed arias and dance music for the marriage, in 1706, of the crown prince. Although his responsibilities included the regular composition of dance music, none of his compositions from the period survive. In 1708, following a dispute, he was relieved of all his duties at the Berlin court.

In 1709 he was taken on as concertmaster ("Maitre de Concert") at the rival court of Dresden: the appointment came with a generous annual salary of 1,200 Thalers. Applying the French style he made the Dresden orchestra one of the best in Europe. Under his directorship musicians such as Veracini and Pisendel joined the court orchestra. As time went on he became adept at blending the French and Italian styles, with an added frisson of German elements, creating something that came to be called the "mixed" or "German" style. The flautist Quantz wrote in an autobiographical contribution to Marpurg's "Historisch-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik" that he had never heard a better orchestra than the Dresden orchestra under Volumier.

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