By the age of twenty Monteclair had studied the bass violin and the double bass and was playing the latter in the orchestra of the Paris Opera. Regarded highly as a teacher, Monteclair was a successful composer in many different genres. He wrote numerous works for the stage that later influenced Rameau and also composed a nunber of cantatas with operatic elements. Monteclair also composed airs, sacred music and instrumental works. "Principes de musique" is now a major historical source of French vocal embellishments from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ~ Keith Johnson