Marais and Forqueray clashed in every aspect. The former was a craftsman with aspirations to climb the social ladder and a clear desire to bear witness to his art. The latter was a haughty revolutionary of improvisation, who boasted that he had never written a note. Marais presented himself as the heir to a whole tradition that had made the viola one of the noblest instruments in the France of his time. Forqueray despised print to such an extent that if his pieces have survived it is thanks to his son who published them posthumously in 1747. Marais encouraged the classical spirit. Forqueray, that of excess.

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