French composer, younger brother of André Campra. Joseph Campra was not, as described by the brothers Parfaict, a ‘fort honnête homme’ who never knew a note of music (Histoire de l'Académie royale de musique). He trained at the choir school of St Sauveur cathedral, Aix-en-Provence, and in 1686 he was conductor of the orchestra of the Marseilles Opéra, then under the direction of Pierre Gautier. At the time of L'Europe galante (1697) he was already playing the basse de violon in the Paris Opéra orchestra and allowing his older brother to borrow his name for the authorship of the comédie lyrique Le carnaval de Venise (1699) and some airs. But we should not deny Joseph the possibility of his having composed some of the six airs that bear his name in the Ballard ...