The
son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, in
Hainaut, then French, now Belgian. Showing an early taste for music, he
became a choir-boy in Antwerp. He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken
on by the great composer, Jean-Philippe Rameau. He followed Rameau as
the conductor of a private orchestra kept by the fermier général Le
Riche de La Poupelinière, a wealthy amateur and great patron of music,
and became gradually determined to do something to revive the study of
i... (more)