Louis and Lully

I had never head of Jean Baptiste Lully before this class. It is now apparent that he was the most famous composer of France at that time due to the fact that King Louis XIV put him in his court. It is also apparent that his music displayed the prominence and eminence of Louis' court. I believe that part of the reason Lully did this was out of fear for what happen if he did not commend the king in his music. However, I also believe that Lully actually enjoyed King Louis and his court, thus explaining the real reason why he was very favorable of the king in his music. He became a Frenchman in 1661 so he obviously did not have an issue with France or King Louis' court. In addition to this, I believe that Louis was so fond of Lully that he let Lully do pretty much whatever he wanted to. As long as Lully stayed in the court and composed his music, Louis gave him a lot of freedom. Louis also let Lully become somewhat of a businessman in the way he monopolized the French opera. Lully controlled the entire opera and ran it like a businessman. This allowed for mutual appreciation between Louis and Lully and could help explain why Lully wrote so fondly of the king in his music.
As far as music, Lully's Battle March simply praises the country of France and attepmts to display the dominance of the king's army. With trumpets blasting and drums rolling Lully successfully portrays the dominance of the French army as if they were going off to battle with their battle march. This too is a compliment to the king in that he is saying the king is great and his army is great.

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.

Lully and Louis XIV

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.

AbsoLOUIEtism

There is no way that the absolutism that occurred in both Europe and Asia during the 17^th and 18^th centuries could have been by coincidence. By the time the 17^th century began, Europe and Asia were not strangers, they had been linked by trade routes for centuries. At the very least, both continents were at least a little about the lifestyle of the other. In fact, there were already ties between the French and the Ottoman Empire. These ties paved the way for the spread of absolutism.

The term absolutism means a monarch has the power to rule their land however they please. In France, rulers would often embellish themselves so that the people admired them, so is true of Louie XIV. These monarchs of Europe feared ever being overthrown by the people, and who can blame them. Can anyone real say they wouldn’t like to have absolute control over an empire? Louie XIV tried to stop this by having people build sculpture or paint portraits of him to make the people of France believe he was a great ruler. Of course by the end of Louie’s reign, the French people still disliked him for using excessive amounts of money for wars. Once stronger relationships were made between the East and the West, the route was paved for absolutism to spread. The East began to show imitate many political practices from the West, and absolutism was reborn.

To think that absolutism occurred out of pure coincidence is crazy. There were enough ties between both Europe and Asia at the time that it only makes sense that each would try and learn from the other.

Globalization + Coincidence = Worldwide Absolutism

The Age of Absolutism, which began between the 16th and 17th centuries, was a time period when many of the world's most powerful civilizations were becoming linked. This time period could also be called the dawn of true globalization, when the world became drastically smaller due to a combination of technological advances that allowed for further travel and expanded trade routes. Various magnificent societies including the Ottoman Empire, the Mongol and later Qing dynasties in China, and European kingdoms became trading partners that relied on each other to maintain their high standards of living. The most important thing that these societies traded, however, was ideas. These ideas were scientific, technological, philosophical, and even political in nature. This allowed for increased competition between these advanced civilizations because now, they could now see each other's advances. This competition, in short, came to be because of this marvelous "shrinking of the world."
The other main factor in this worldwide age of absolutist governments was coincidence. There is no factor that could have determined what leaders came to power of these world superpowers, and it is sheer happenstance that each of these major civilizations had rulers that were audacious enough to enact policies with the main goal of competing with the rest of the world. Many of these rulers (Louis XIV, Akbar, Sokollu Mehmet Pasa) that had trade desires could have very easily had more introverted political philosophies. If any of these civilizations had been more inclined to not trade with the outside world, the Age of Absolutism would have not occurred with such magnitude. It was this coincidence, along with the world's rapid globalization of trade, that created the prefect atmosphere for the Age of Absolutism.

Coincidence?

Although the similarities between Persian, Indian, Japanese, and European governments may seem like a coincidence, there are actually many reasons why these four countries were experiencing similar forms of absolutism. During the time of change in the early modern era, governments were becoming more unified because of strong leaders who formed absolutist governments. This was a time of transition from the medieval period to the early modern period. The orderly governments were forming because of widespread economic prosperity and religious tolerance. Also, the invention of the printing press helped countries to become more unified because information was more accessible and circulated through a greater number of people. Trade between countries also helped fuel these similar changes because each country could specialize in products and therefore become more united. Each country also tried to compete with each other through the arts and architecture. They wanted to create structures that would be around for many years to come, and could stand as a symbol for their national pride. These architectural marvels included Versailles, the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and the Imperial Mosque. Different forms of art also emerged in each country which helped give more national pride and made each country unique. Overall, all these characteristics show how these countries were undergoing similar changes, but for specific changes that influenced each other and helped create national pride and transition into the modern era.

The Age of Absolutism

I believe that the wave of absolutism that occurred throughout Europe and Asia was not a coincidence. The trade routes that existed between the East and the West linked them together. The numerous goods, people, and news that traveled along those routes all assisted in the coinciding absolutist kingdoms. Not to mention that many different rulers of the time were marrying off their children and relatives in order to strengthen political ties with other absolutist reigns. For example, King Henry VIII's marriage of Catherine of Aragon established a bonded between England and Spain. The mere fact that all these different absolutist reigns were connected and not separate provided the means for which absolutism could prosper.