The magnificence of Lully’s music can be strongly linked with the lavishness of Louis XIV’s French court. This is largely because Lully received his fame as "father of French opera" because he was recognized as talented by the King when he danced in a Ballet de la Nuit. Louis then gave the Lully the prestigious position of royal composer and music teacher. Louis had essentially given Lully power over all music in the royal court. Because of the position Lully had been given by the King, he must have felt obligated to please the king through his music. For example, Lully was famous for his operas, and it was under Lully, that the French opera first began to include formal dance. This was clearly a tribute to Louis and his love and talent for dancing. Lully also based many of his operas on heroes from classical mythology. These heroes were representations of Louis to honor him. This relates to Louis’s view of himself as the Sun King, which he danced the part of in the 1653 Ballet de la Nuit. This idea of the Sun King is based on the god Apollo from Greek mythology. Lully’s opera Cadmus et Hermione also praises Louis by having him be represented as Apollo. Also, Lully’s opera Alceste, based on mythological characters, was presented to celebrate Louis’s victory in battle.
Louis also desired to unite France by making himself the center of it. Versailles is the visual symbol of his reign, and Lully’s orchestras and operas can be seen as the auditory symbol of his reign. Indeed, just as Louis made strides to unite France, Lully stressed unification and discipline in his orchestras. He is the person responsible for having all violinists point their bows in the same direction so that a unified sound could be heard and the orchestra could be heard as a whole rather than as individuals. His unification of the orchestra was rewarded by Louis as he granted Lully control of court chamber music and made him head of the grand violins. Therefore, just as Louis was the absolute ruler of all of France, Lully was like the absolute ruler of all of French music. He controlled all aspects of musical performance, French opera, and French orchestra. The King’s Versailles led the way in magnificence in French fashion, furniture, and court, while Lully led the way in magnificence in French music. Therefore, I believe that Lully felt obligated to praise and honor the King with his music and to use his work as a means of unifying and glorifying France.
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As a music major, I know about Lully and understand him and his music, but this post really let me see some comparisons that I never really had thought about before. Lully invented French opera to satisfy the need for the dramatic of the French people without it being Italian. The French had their own distinct taste, that being dance, which, of course, Louis XIV loved. At the end of an opera the nobility were invited to join the performers and of course Louis was right up there with them. I never really thought of this as being "a tribute to Louis" but it makes complete sense. He would want to please the king and dance would be the way to it.
ReplyDeleteAnother point that I hadn't thought about before was Lully being compared to Louis in the sense of an 'absolute ruler.' Louis gave Lully pretty much a monopoly over all music in the French court, so everything would have to be approved through Lully, like how all French affairs had to be approved by Louis. The discipline and unification of the orchestra that Lully conducted is a great comparison to the discipline and unification of the French people under Louis.
This post really made me look at things in a different way. Although one was the master and one essentially the servant, they both were similar in the fact that they held complete power over something. Sure Lully had to please Louis and that doesn't necessarily work the other way around, but Lully and Louis both worked to make France distinctly French, whether that is the state or the music.