4. Jean-Baptiste Lully
(1632-1687)
b. Florence
(Giovanni Battista
Lulli)
under Louis XIII
Italian music was
patronized
Louis XIII dies 1643 Louis XIV born 1638
Italian cardinal Mazarin
in power until 1661
Lully enters court in
1650s
How did an Italian become the most important
French composer of the 17th century?
5. • Lully wrote dances and airs for ballet de cour
and danced with Louis XIV
• ballet de cour—court ballet
– like Italian intermedio
– staged, singing, large audience
• air de cour—court air
– monody w/lute accompaniment
– no regular meter—metric shifts
– meter matches syllables
– Gabriel Bataille, Ma bergere non lègere
• Dance in French Music
– late 16th c.—pavane, galliard,
allemande—each have their own
particular type of music, corresponding
to dance steps
– 17th c.—courante, sarabande, minuet,
gigue, others
Dance
Le Roi Danse—King Dancing
6. • 1660s—Louis XIV began to rule
• French aristocracy was required to pay homage to Louis XIV @
Versailles, which became center of artistic activity
• Lully was head of court musicians
• collaborations w/Molière called comedies-ballets
• directed the “24 violins”
Music at Versailles
7. Lully in the 1670s
and 80s
• dir. Royal academy of
Music, exclusive rights
to present operas in
France, averaged 1
opera per year; no
other composers were
allowed to rival his
works
• opera w/Phillipe
Quinault—11 operas
(tragedies en musique)
Le Roi Danse—Death of Lully Phillipe Quinault
10. Arias and Recitatives
• short airs (like air de cour)
• recitative
– suited French language
– changing time signatures to fit speech patterns
– clear rhythm/definite tempo
– not as speech-like as Italian; not much lengthy
recitation on a single pitch
• Enfin il est en ma puissance from Armide
11. scoring
• no high voices for men’s roles
• no alto voice
• 24 violins for overture, ballet
– Armide, Overture
• recit and air accompanied by continuo
• wind (recorder, oboe, bassoon) for special effects
12. How was it different from Venetian
opera?
• French opera featured:
– few comic scenes
– dances from royal court ballet
– chorus
– divertissements
• dances/chorus play prominent roles (like intermedi)
• diversion from main plot
13. How did French baroque music sound?
• Conventions of Tempo and Rhythm
– overdotting/double-dotting—applies to opening
sections of overtures
– notes inégales—lengthened 1st note in certain pairs of
small note values
• ornaments (agrements)
– not free embellishment (elaborate melodic decoration
whose patterns can be indicated only by writing out
the notes; embellishment is more common in Italian
music)
– standardized melodic decoration which can be
notated through symbols (see chart p. 369)
15. – 1st movement—improvisatory prelude
– other movements—stylized dances
• tempo, rhythm, style borrowed from court dances
– Allemande—slow, 4/4, improvisatory, arpeggiated, French word for
“German”
– Courante—moderate, 6/4 or 6/8, hemiola,
– Sarabande—slow, 3/2 or 3/4, strong 2nd beat, block chords, simple
– Gigue—lively 6/4 or 6/8, in English “jig”, skipping rhythms
– other dances
• Gavotte—2/2, music starts on beat 2
• Minuet—3/4, regular phrases
– Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Suite in a minor
– Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667)
• German, probably a student of Frescobaldi
• combined prima prattica and seconda prattica
• wrote almost exclusively for keyboard
• Italian toccatas—but had longer contrapuntal section, fugues
• established the traditional format of the French Suite
Harpsichord suites
16. Sacred Music
• Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (1645 or
1650?-1704)
– probably studied w/
Carissimi
– also wrote comedies
– singer
– chapel
– oratorios, cantatas, airs
18. Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
• English composer
• 1677 (age 18!)—composing for King
Charles II
• 1679—organist at Westminster Abbey
• wrote anthems, court odes, welcome songs
(multi-movement works), keyboard works,
chamber music
• imitative counterpoint
• seconda prattica dissonance
• songs included in plays—recit and aria
• opera—Dido and Aeneas
• Dido’s Lament
– lament
» from venician opera—
Cavalli
» ostinato
» descending bass
• opera did not develop as a
tradition in England until 1800s