Everything about Jean-baptiste Lully totally explained
Jean-Baptiste de Lully (
Giovanni Battista di Lulli) (in French) (
November 28,
1632 –
March 22,
1687), was a French
composer of
Italian birth, who spent most of his life working in the court of
Louis XIV of France. He became a
French subject in 1661.
Biography
Born in
Florence, the son of a miller, Lully had little education, musical or otherwise, but he'd a natural talent to play the
guitar and
violin and to dance. In 1646, he was discovered by the
Duke of Guise and taken to France by him, where he entered the services of
Mademoiselle de Montpensier (la Grande Mademoiselle) as a
scullery-boy. There is some dispute over this, however; it's actually possible that he was employed to teach her Italian. With the help of this lady his musical talents were cultivated. He studied the theory of music under
Nicolas Métru. A scurrilous poem on his patroness resulted in his dismissal.
He came into
Louis XIV's service in late 1652, early 1653 as a dancer. He composed some music for the Ballet de la Nuit which pleased the king immensely. He was appointed as the composer of instrumental music to the king and
conducted the royal string
orchestra of the
French court,
Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi (Twenty-four Violins of the King) or the
Grande Bande (large band). He tired of the lack of discipline of the
Grande Bande, and with the King's permission formed his own
Petits Violons.
Lully composed many ballets for the King during the 1650s and 1660s, in which the King and Lully himself danced. He also had tremendous success composing the music for the comedies of
Molière, including
Le Mariage forcé (1664),
L'Amour médecin (1665), and
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670). Louis XIV's interest in ballet waned as he aged and his dancing ability declined (his last performance was in 1670) and so Lully pursued opera. He bought the privilege for opera from
Pierre Perrin and with the backing of
Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the king, created a new privilege which essentially gave Lully complete control of all music performed in France until his death.
He was a notorious libertine. In 1662, he did marry Madeleine Lambert, daughter of Lully's friend and fellow musician
Michel Lambert, and proceeded to have ten children by her. But at the height of his career, in 1685 he felt confident enough to flaunt his
relationship with Brunet, his young page from La Chapelle. Although his life is full of meteoric heights, his love affairs with boys and women brought him down in scandal several times to the great displeasure of Louis XIV and led to his renown as a
sodomite.
Despite these scandals, he always managed to get back into the good graces of Louis XIV who found Lully essential for his musical entertainments and who thought of Lully as one of his few true friends. In 1681 Lully was appointed as a court secretary to Louis XIV and was ennobled, after which he wrote his name "Jean-Baptiste de Lully" and was addressed as "Monsieur de Lully".
On
January 8 1687, Lully was conducting a
Te Deum in honor of Louis XIV's recent recovery from illness. He was beating time by banging a long staff (a precursor to the
baton) against the floor, as was the common practice at the time, when he struck his toe, creating an
abscess. The wound turned
gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread resulting in his death on 22 March. He left his last opera,
Achille et Polyxène,
unfinished.
Music
Lully's music is from the
Middle Baroque period, 1650 to 1700. Typical of
Baroque music is the use of the
basso continuo as the driving force behind the music. The pitch standard for French Baroque music was about 392 Hz for A above Middle C, a whole tone lower than modern practice where A is usually 440 Hz.
Lully's music is known for its power, liveliness in its fast movements and its deep emotional character in its sad movements. Some of his most popular works are his
passacaille (
passacaglia) and
chaconne which are dance movements found in many of his works such as
Armide or
Phaëton. His
Miserere, written for the funeral of the minister Seguier, is considered a work of genius. Equally acclaimed are his minor sacred compositions.
The influence of Lully's music produced a radical revolution in the style of the
dances of the court itself. Instead of the slow and stately movements which had prevailed until then, he introduced lively
ballets of rapid
rhythm. He affected important improvements in the composition of the orchestra, into which he introduced several new
instruments, and Lully enjoyed the friendship of
Molière, with whom he created a new music form, the
comédie-ballet which combined theater, comedy, and ballet.
The instruments in his music were:
violins, five sizes/voices: (dessus, haute-contre, taille, quinte, basse), close to one voice of violins, three voices of violas, and cello(violoncello))
basse de viole (viole, viola da gamba)
guitar
lute
archlute
theorbo
harpsichord
organ
oboe
bassoon
recorder
flute
brass
percussion
Lully founded French opera (
tragédie en musique or
tragédie lyrique), having found Italian-style opera inappropriate for the French language. Having found a congenial poet and librettist in
Philippe Quinault, Lully composed many operas and other works, which were received enthusiastically. Lully can be considered the founder of French opera, having foresaken the Italian method of dividing musical numbers into separate
recitatives and
arias, choosing instead to combine the two for dramatic effect. Lully also opted for quicker story development as was more to the taste of the French public.
Media
Cultural References
- The relationship between the King Louis and Lully was depicted in the French Film by Gérard Corbiau The King is Dancing (Le Roi Danse) 2002
Further Information
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