ABSTRACT
Jean-Baptiste Barrière was an outstanding cellist and one of the first composers in France to publish solo music for that instrument. This chapter investigates Barrière's contributions to the early development of solo music for the cello in France. Both Jean-Baptiste Forqueray and Barrière reached the height of their careers in the 1730s and 1740s demonstrates that the viol and the cello co-existed as solo instruments for a considerable period of time and that each instrument had its outstanding exponents. In addition to Barrière, only a few other Parisian cellists and composers for the instrument are known. Foremost among them is the Neapolitan Salvatore Lanzetti, the only cellist whom Hubert Le Blanc mentions by name, and who in 1736 was the first cellist to perform as a soloist at the Concert Spirituel. Jean-Joseph Masse published five books of sonatas and a collection of menuets for two cellos in Paris; none of them bears a date on the title page.
