Sunday, February 8, 2009
Lully and Louis XIV
It would be an overwhelmingly stressful job to be the musical CEO of Paris and Versailles, but Lully held that position for years. Lully had to compose music for everyday tasks, from the king getting out of bed to music while the king ate. Louis XIV’s court can be described as one of constant rules and etiquettes. Everyday life and tasks had a specific set of rules to govern what and what not to do. It is then no surprise that the music during Louis XIV also had a set of rules to follow. Louis XIV was very fond of music that followed a set form and did not deviate from it; it would not have like contemporary music but rather musical pieces that followed the rules. Lully, of course, had to compose pieces that followed the rules in order to please the king. In Lully’s Chaconne in G Major he does exactly this. A chaconne is a musical form in which a short harmonic progression is presented and then repeated with variations to it. It is a form of music that has a set of rules that must be followed and Louis XIV would approve of. The piece starts out presenting essentially the melody, it is a melody that one could easy dance to. The chords are in major and give off the feeling of grandeur and eloquence while all the while keeping the actual melody relatively simple. Another piece by Lully is Te Deum or Symphony and it also has a form that it follows. It introduces a melody filled with grand trumpets that would represent the king and then it follows with the strings that represent the rest of the court. It is easily another piece that can be danced to and because dance was so important to Louis XIV, it would make sense that Lully created pieces that could be danced to. Lully’s pieces have an air of sophistication that makes them come off as belonging to the king and not to any commoner. This was music that only the court and the king could truly enjoy because it emulated them and their lives. While Lully had a stressful job composing music for Paris and Versailles, he was successful and created music that governed French music for years to come.
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It is interesting to point out that all of the songs that Lully composed and preformed contained symbols that represented things around him at the time. When listening to Te Deum it is very clear that the trumpets represent the all powerful sun god Louis XIV. With such a distinctive sound comes the dominating presence that they take over the strings which as mentioned represent the court that is essentially lower then the king himself.
ReplyDeleteWith all of these symbols signifying Louis the XIV as a dominant and powerful figure it is no wonder why Lully kept his job for so long. Not only where Lully’s songs ways of showing how authoritative and powerful Louis XIV was, they were also dance songs as the article points out. The dance showed the lighter more playful side of Louis XIV. Louis loved to dance so Lully would appeal to his artistic side by composing songs that were easy to dance to as the article states.
If Lully’s job was truly stressful like this article states he obviously didn’t let it affect him. He not only pleased the king but he did his job so well that others would follow his guidelines for making music for years to come.
I, admittedly, do not know or understand much about music but I can imagine that it would not be easy to compose music for the king of France. Lully had the honor of composing music for Louis XIV. It must have been especially hard for Lully to do his job for a king who enjoyed listening to music often as well as dancing to it. I thought it was interesting that this post pointed out that Lully’s music followed rules just as Louis XIV’s court did. That commonality is interesting because in doing so, Lully was able to appeal to Louis and probably why he was in the position he was for so long.
ReplyDeleteThis post also pointed out that Lully's music was loud and grand but at the same time kept sophistication. This shows the Lully's music kept true to his king but also to Baroque style.
I also understand very little of creating or performing music, but I have to imagine that it was incredibly stressful at times to have to create music for the King of France. I also believe that the only way for Lully to have done this so well and for so long was if he absolutely loved it.
ReplyDeleteObviously Lully was a talented individual, and had musical creativity well beyond what a normal person has. Even still, if Lully had just been talented he would have gotten bored and probably gotten very upset with Louie XIV. I’m sure when it came to all the rules and etiquette that must have been followed, Lully was already used to it and had no problem with it. It’s not as if outside of Louie’s palace there were no rules. Although it might seem very uptight to us nowadays, it probably wasn’t all that much to ask of Lully at the time.
The last thing I want to mention about this post is that it says what I cannot say because I know absolutely nothing about music.