French cello virtuoso and composer Jean Barrière most likely lived in Bordeaux for some time before moving to Paris, judging by documents that appeared after his death. In 1730 he earned the designation “Musicien ordinaire de notre Académie Royale de Musique” in Paris, and three years later he was granted a privilege to publish “many sonatas and other instrumental musical works.” Two books of his sonatas appeared before Barrière left for Rome in 1736 intending to study with Italian cellist Francesco Alborea, known as Francischello. Barrière seems not to have studied with him, however, and made concert tours in Italy before returning to Paris in 1738. Few descriptions of Barrière’s playing survive, but he was known as one of the greatest cello virtuosos of the first half of the eighteenth century, when the modern cello, already popularized in Italy, began taking over from the viol in France. 

In 1739 Barrière’s publishing privilege was extended for twelve more years, and he continued to issue cello sonatas (which included a trio sonata for treble instrument and cello and the two-cello sonata), as well as a collection for pardessus de viole (highest member of the viol family) and one for harpsichord. Unfortunately he died at age forty—only four years into his second publishing privilege—but he is considered the first to write specifically idiomatic music for the cello.

The Two-Cello Sonata in G major appears as the fourth work in Book 3 (later publications follow different numbering), and in Barrière’s day, when typically there would have been continuo accompaniment (keyboard and reinforcing bass instrument), the work gives no figures with a bass line accompaniment, meaning the two cellos alone carry the whole. After two slow movements, the virtuosic third movement takes off in a rapid-fire conversation between the two protagonists.

—©Jane Vial Jaffe