Louis Marchand (2 February 1669 – 17 February 1732) was a French Baroque organist, harpsichordist, and composer. Born into an organist's family, Marchand was a child prodigy and quickly established himself as one of the best known French virtuosos of his time. He worked as organist of numerous churches and, for a few years, as one of the four organistes du roy. Marchand had a violent temperament and an arrogant personality, and his life was filled with scandals, publicized and widely discussed both during his lifetime and after his death. Despite his fame, few of his works survive to this day, and those that do almost all date from his early years. Nevertheless, a few pieces of his, such as the organ pieces Grand dialogue and Fond d'orgue have been lauded as classic works of the French organ school. Life Marchand came from a musical family: his grandfather, Pierre (d.1676) had been a schoolmaster and music teacher and his three sons, Jean (Marchand's father), Pierre and Louis were organists. Pierre held the incumbency at Auxonne for some years before his death in 1684; Louis was to become curé at the church of Saint-Maurice Pontailler-sur-Saône, some 15 kilometres from Auxonne after 1 January 1676, where he was to remain until his arrest for the abduction and rape of 'paroissiennes'. [His sentence of death was commuted to servitude on the galleys and he died in Marseilles in 1694.] Jean was an organist at the cathedral of Clermont Ferrand before the family moved to Nevers in 1684, where Jean was to serve at the church of Saint Martine. As a child, the future composer showed exceptional talent: posthumous account, by Évrard Titon du Tillet, states that already at the age of 14 he was offered the prestigious position of organist at the Nevers Cathedral. We must be circumspect about this, however, since there is no documentary evidence of Marchand's time in Nevers, other than a contract he countersigned with his father engaging the services of Pierre Bridard to enlarge the Saint Martin organ. By age 20 he settled in Paris, and married the daughter of the harpsichord builder Jean Denis. According to his marriage contract, he was by that time organist at the church of Eglise Saint-Jacques on Paris's South Bank. Future tenures were to be held at , the church of the Cordeliers Convent and the church of . In June 1708,