This is one of the pieces highlighted in the movie, Tous les matins du monde , directed by Alain Corneau (1943-2010) starring Guillaume Depardieu and his father Gerard as the younger and older Marais. A review of the movie from the Washington Post can be found here.
Marin Marais Natally
Marin Marais was born in Paris in 1656. The birth-date was not recorded then just the christening date as France was not yet a secular country, so we are using that and assuming that he was baptized after the Sunday service sometime around noon. The date cannot be too off, unless his mother either died or was quite ill, in which case the baptism could be later than forty days. There is no record of any of this so we can assume he was born with that time period.
This time and date give him a Grand Earth Trine in his chart using Jupiter, his focal determinator, Saturn and Neptune, and supports the comment in the story that he started out as a Church vocalist and came to the viola de gama (commonly referred to as the viol) after his voice changed. The chart has two conjunctions, one on the twelfth house cusp between Pluto and the Moon in Gemini and the other between Mercury and Sun in Aries, that is too close, and in a combust relationship showing that while a great musician he was not a good logician, but that was also evidenced in the movie, by his dismissal of Madeleine Sainte-Columbe on account that “her body bored him; there are others out there that are better and newer, ” and a squine between Venus and Pluto.
His ascendant is 18.26 Cancer, showing that he had a persistent nature in obtaining musical knowledge and could be grasping and self-serving in realization his career dreams (Midheaven of course square, first house opposite the Dragon’s Head at 23.35 Capricorn). Indeed, despite his strong grand trine, Marais has many squares in chart and several smaller harmonic trines as well; almost an equal amount, one offsetting the other and giving his a good amount of tribulation to strengthen his spirit and success to reward his work along his path.
With Jupiter at 05.36 Taurus as his focal determinator, Marais not only loved playing the viol and music in general, he was a rather workaholic, putting all of his energies into his pursuit. His Mars at 28.44 Taurus probably represents his composer son, Roland, (c. 1685 – c. 1750) from his marriage on 21 September 1676 to Catherine D’Amicourt, and the one of his 19 children to be musically notable. 
Look at the green ball on the Progressed chart for his marriage to see fruitful Jupiter attended the festivities. His death at 72 years of age, on August 15, 1728 shows his final Grand Trine, this time in Air but also highlighting Jupiter in Gemini in the eleventh house, shows that by this time, his musical reputation was secure and he quite an old man. The planets suggest that a heart attack killed him.
