Thursday, February 5, 2009
Jean-Baptiste Lully
I've never considered myself to be a conossieur of music, but Lully's pieces that I have listened to obviously emanate the lavish characteristics of King Louis XIV's court. Louis XIV's court was the most prominent European court of the time having the best in all aspects of French culture. The best artists, scultpures, dancers, architects, and musicians were available to please Louis XIV's needs at any moment. So naturally the best musician Louis could find was appointed composer of the King's instrumental music and music teacher for the royal family. Lully was in charge of all aspects of music at Versaille and in Paris. Louis prided himself on his ability to dance so naturally he noticed Lully while he danced in a Ballet de la nuit. From then on, Lully composed music and wrote operas to impress/please Louis. Lully often wrote operas about greek mythology and the god's of the stories and made them prototypes of Louis and his ruling. All of the topics he wrote about in his operas were made to compliment the King. Money was no object in the court of Louis XIV so Lully composed musical pieces and wrote operas as splendid as the King's tastes year round. Lully's composition, Marche Pour la Ceremonie des Turcs, was one that I listened to on youtube and I instantly pictured Versaille and the spledor of its surroundings in my head. The piece was very catchy and I could almost see myself walking through the drawing rooms and luxurious halls of Versailles pictured in our text. In my opinion, Lully tried very hard to reflect the tastes of Louis and his court and did a spectacular job of capturing the grandeur of it all in his pieces.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would agree with the fact that Louis XIV thoroughly enjoyed Lully’s compositions, but I don’t fell that they were all written to fulfill the king’s needs. Lully had a specific style of music that was said to be powerful in meaning and presentation. All of his works were very ideal for dancing. Lully originally came into King Louis’s court as a dancer, so his ideas of music and dancing were very whimsical and to the king’s liking. Lully did like to impress the king to an extent, but the overall style of most of his compositions was the main reason king Louis the XIV wanted Lully as his primary composer of his royal court. The music is said to have been one of King Louis XIV’s main sources of entertainment.
ReplyDeleteThe similar ideals and tastes of dance and music is the reason both got along so well, disregarding all of the incidents the two had out side of music with love affair scandals and what not. The music and dancing was how the two worked the best together. I do agree with most of the statements made, but the cognitive success presented between Louis XIV and Lully was unprecedented in some views.