RESUME

Name: Jean Baptiste Lully

Date-of-Birth: 1632

Age: 55

Sex: Male

Nationality: Italian-born (French Nationality from 1681)

Communication: Italian and French

Work In 1646, entering Mlle de Montpensier service in France and becoming her string
Experience: member and teaching Italian. (at age
In 1653, joining the court violin ensemble of Louis XIV soon becoming a
composer of dance music to the king and chief of the newly established Petit-
Violons du Roi (The King’s Violins).
In 1658, starting compose music for the court ballets.
From 1661, holding royal appointments as musical composer to the king.
From 1652, becoming a music master to the royal family
From 1664 to 1670, collaborating with Molière, (French actor and playwright, the
greatest of all writers of French comedy), in the comédie-ballet.
From 1672, collaborating with the librettist Philippe Quinault on operatic and
ballet works.
In 1681, appointing the position one of the secrétaires du roi (royal secretary).
Acquiring the patents of operatic production from Pierre Perrin and Robert
Cambert and by 1674 no opera could be performed anywhere in France without
my permission.
Strengths: Skillfulness in several field: playing violin, dancing, conducting, composing.
Good in doing business, I gained monopoly over French opera market.
My French opera style was hold as a model for one century in France. My writing
style also spread to England. Music in England was significantly influenced by
me.
Charles I sent his musicians to France to study how to follow my style.

Achievements 1. I am very much favored at the French court. I was appointed as Superintendent
of Music before reaching the age of 30, and Director of Academie Royale de
Musique in 1672. I achieved monopoly over French opera and eliminated any
possible rivals in this field. By 1674, no opera could by performed anywhere in
France without my permission.

2. I created tragédie lyrique and comédie-ballet. Tragédie lyrique, which also call
as tragédie en musique is an opera genre. The story of this opera genre usually
based on classical mythology or the Italian romantic epics of Tasso and Ariosto.
The stories don’t always have a tragic ending, but the atmosphere throughout the
work is noble and stately. A tragédie en musique usually has five acts. Comédie-
ballet is a combination of ballet, theater, comedy and incidental music.

3. I established the form of French overture. I also write accompanied recitative

noted for its great rhythmic freedom and careful word setting. I discovered a style
of declamation that was suitable for French language; hence the French opera
acquired more continuity.

4. I caused a revolution in the court’s dance style. Before my music was being
played, the style of the dances of the court is slower movement. I introduced
lively ballets of fast rhythm, dances such as gavottes, menuets, rigaudons and
sarabande.
 Compostion of Jean-Baptiste Lully Giovanni Battista Lulli (Florencia, 1632–París,
1687).
Fechas LWV1 Ballet de cour Comédies-ballet [Opéras]
16 march1653 Louis XIV designate to Lully ‘compositeur of the musique instrumentale’
3 december 1 Le temps (23 entrées,
1654 Issac de Benserade, 1613-
1691, scribe and French
poet),Paris, Louvre
14 february 9 Alcidiane (21 entrées,
1658 Benserade), Paris, Louvre.
He begins to use the design
of the so-called French
overture, which 'it would
seem that he would not have
invented it'.
19 february 11 La raillerie (12 entrées,
1659 Benserade), Paris, Louvre
In this ballet, Lully
introduces the minuet and
was responsible for making
it popular.
¿1660? 77/xvi Jubilate Deo (¿Motet de la Paix?), sung at least nine-ten times in the
Louvre
16 may 1661 Louis XIV (1638-1715) begins his personal reign. He had risen to the throne of France and
Navarre on May 14, 1643, at the age of five. The period from the death of his father, Louis
XIII, until 1661, is known as the Regency of his mother, Queen Anne of Austria and his
prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661).
Louis grants Lully the highest office he could hope for: 'surintendent de la musique de la
chambre du roi'. This same year, Lully is naturalized French.
29 20 Le mariage forcé
January1664 (5,
Molière, 1622-73);
Paris, Louvre
28 27 La naissance de Vénus
January1665 (12 entrées, Benserade);
Paris, Palais Royal
9 January 1666 30 Le triomphe de Bacchus
dans les Indes, mascarade
(5 entrées), Paris, Hôtel de
Créqui

1 Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Werke von Jean-Baptiste Lully, ed. H. Schneider (Tutzing, 1981)
[LWV]
January1666 32 Les muses (13 entrées,
Benserade), Saint
Germain-en-Laye
18 de julio de 38 George Dandin (5,
1668 Molière);
Versailles,
6 de octubre de 41 Monsieur de
1669 Pourceaugnac (5,
Molière);
Chambord
13 July 1669 40 Flore (15 entrées,
Benserade), Paris,
Tuileries
4 July 1670 42 Les amants
magnifiques (5,
Molière); Saint
Germain-en-Laye
14 October 43 Le bourgeois
1670 gentilhomme (5,
Molière);
Chambord
17 January 45 Psyché,
1671 tragédieballet
(Molière, P.
Corneille y
Quinault), Paris,
Tuileries
3 March 1671 Pomone «opéra, ou représentation en musique» «pastoral»
(prologue, 5 acts, dramatic text by Pierre Perrin [1625-1675],
music by Robert Cambert [Paris, c1628 - London, 1677]), Paris,
Jeu de Paume de la Bouteille.2
march 1672 Lully became director of the Académie Royales de Musique. Before
certain circumstances, Lully bought the privileges of the opéra that the
king had granted to Perrin in 1661.
11 48 Les fêtes de l'Amour et
November167 (LWV de
2 33, 38, Bacchus (pastorale, prol.,
42, 43) 3, P. Quinault, on
Molière y Lully); Paris,
Jeu de Paume de Béquet3
17 march 1773 Molière dies from a collapse on stage at the end of the fourth performance of
Le malade imaginaire.
mid April 1673 49 Cadmus et Hermione
(Quinault, on the
Ovid's Metamorphosis);
 Paris, Jeu de Paume de
Béquet.4

2
"It had been represented privately in Sèvres in June 1670 ... its structure was similar to the future tragédie en musique, five
acts preceded by a prologue, located in front of the Louvre, in which the Nymph of the Seine and Vertummus, god of
gardens , glorified Louis XIV as the "new Mars" and Paris as the "New Rome". The plot, interspersed with dances, is
dedicated to the courtship of Vertummus to Pomona, goddess of fruits. The verses have traditionally been criticized for
their trivial, "low" style ... What survives from the music of Cambert, although not of the same caliber as Lully's, is
animated and melodious. The success of Pomone was prodigious and unprecedented, with 146 performances in almost
eight months. " See Vincent Giroud, "From the Origins to Lully," in French Opera (Chapter 1), pp. 13-14
3
"Considered by modern scholars the first authentic French opera; It involved ballets (danced by male dancers under
the direction of Pierre Beauchamp and Des Brosses), show and elaborate effects of stage machinery
4
(designed by the Marquis de Sourdéac) ". See Christina Bashford, "Cambert, Robert", in The New Grove, 2001
(online).3 'Game of palms', old name and form of the game of tennis, which for the sixteenth century replaced palms with
rackets.4 "Louis XIV attends the performance on April 27, consecrating the triumph of Lully."
Molière died, on April 28, 1673 the King authorized Lully to use the theater of the Palais-Royal.
Remodeled by Carlo Vigarini [1637-1713; from 1662, "ingénieur du roi" and "intendant des plaisirs du
roi"], it remained as the opera house in Paris until its fire in 1763.
¿18 january 50 Alceste, ou Le triomphe
1674? d'Alcide [Hércules]
(Quinault, on Alcestis de
Eurípides); Paris,
Opéra. 2

15 january 51 Thésée (Quinault, on the

1675 Metamorphosis of Ovid),
Saint Germainen-Laye
10 53 Atys (Quinault, on
january1676 Fasti de Ovidio), Saint
Germain-in-Laye
(« l'opéra du roi »)
5 january 54 Isis (Quinault, on the
1677 Metamorfosis de Ovidio),
Saint Germain-en-Laye
(« l'opéra du musiciens »)
9 september 55 Te Deum, grand motet, for soloists (5 voices: 2 sopranos, alto, tenor, bass), two
1677 choirs and orchestra (belonging to the 12 Grands motets collection),
Fontainebleau
19 april 56 Psyché, (T. Corneille, B. le
1678 Bovier de Fontenelle, on The
Golden Ass of Apuleius),
Paris, Opéra

22"The public trials of this new work were made in Versailles during the autumn. In Paris, Alceste found admirers and
enemies. The free adaptation of Euripides Quinault - embellished with additional characters and picturesque incidents, such
as the siege and capture of a city in Act 2 - was severely criticized (among others, by Racine), even Lully's music was
satirized. In July, Alceste was represented in Versailles as part of the festivities celebrating the conquest of Franche-Comté.
"
31 january 57 Bellérophon (T. Corneille
1679 and Fontenelle, on the
Teogonía de Hesíodo),
Paris, Opéra; "One of
Lully's most popular hits."

3 february 58 Proserpine (Quinault, on

1680 the Metamorphosis of Ovid),
Saint Germainen-Laye

21 january 59 Le triomphe de l'amour

1681 (20 entrées, Benserade and
P. Quinault), Saint
Germainen-Laye
1681 Lully reaches the pinnacle of royal favor when he solicits and obtains from Louis XIV
a position as royal secretary.

18 april 60 Persée (Quinault, on the

1682 Metamorfosis of Ovidio),
Paris, Opéra
8/9 61 Phaëton (Quinault, on the
january1683 Metamorfosis of Ovidio),
Versailles
("l'opéra du peuple)
16 january 63 Amadis (Quinault, on
1684 Amadis the Gaule de
Montalvo, adapted by
N. Herberay des Essarts);
Paris, Opéra
8 january 65 Roland (Quinault, on
1685 Orlando furioso of
Ariosto), Versailles
16 july 1685 68 Idylle sur la paix,
divertissement (J. Racine),
Sceaux
20 69 Le temple de la paix (6
october1685 entrées, Quinault),
Fontainebleau
15 february 71 Armide (Quinault, on
1686 Gerusalemme liberate the T.
Tasso), Paris, Opéra.
"She triumphed in the
Opéra, but she was not
represented in the court".
6 september 73 Acis et Galatée (pastorale
1686 héroïque, prol, 3, J. G. de
Campistron, on the
Ovid's Metamorphosis),
 Anet

My Death And Legacy

It is the circumstances of my death that are the most notorious.Way before conductors used
batons as conducting tools, staffs were used instead. The method of conducting using a staff was vastly
different as compared to the usage of a baton: a conductor indicated the time of a piece by banging a
large staff on the floor, while with a baton, as it is used today, it is done by drawing patterns in the air.

On January 8th 1687, I was using a staff when conducting a Te Deum in celebration of King
Louis XIV’s recovery from an illness, when I struck my foot with it by mistake. The wound soon
turned gangrenous but I refused to have my “dancer’s leg” amputated, claiming I would rather die than
to lose his ability to dance. It did not take long for the infection to disseminate throughout my body,
which ultimately resulted in my death two months later, on the 22th of March 1687. I left my last
opera, Achille et Polyxène, unfinished. I was later honoured as the “Prince of French musicians” by
Évrard Titon du Tillet (link is external) for my significant contributions to the French music industry.

My legacy is kept alive through his music. I founded French opera (tragédie en musique or
tragédie lyrique), after having found Italian-style opera inappropriate for the French language. Having
found a congenial poet and librettist in Philippe Quinault, I composed many operas and other works,
which received enthusiastically. I 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. I also opted for quicker story development as was more to the
taste of the French public.

I was a master of powerful music. I showed livelier fast and slow movements in my unique
compositions. The music also reflected a deeply emotional character. It led to a full revolution in the
style of the court dances. The two distinctive types of music, a flexible and expressive Italian style and
the traditional French style were efficiently blended by me making my style of music one of its kind.

Bibiography

BURKHOLDER, P.;
GROUT, D.; PALISCA,
C. - Historia de la Música
Occidental OCR (1) 417-
422

Composition,
Performance, and Text in
Solo Music of the French
Baroque Author(s):
Ronald Broude Source:
Text, Vol. 15 (2003), pp.
19-49 Published by:
Indiana University Press
Stable URL:
https://www.jstor.org/stab
le/30227783 Accessed:
13-04-2019 09:05 UTC