JEAN-BAPTISTE LULLY (1674)

Italian form GIOVANNI BATTISTA LULLI (born Nov. 28, 1632, Florence)

French court and operatic composer who from 1662 completely controlled court music and whose style of writing was widely imitated throughout Europe.

Born of Italian parents Lully gallicized his name when he became a naturalized Frenchman.

His early history is obscure but he probably was taken to France by the Duke of Guise.

He entered the service of Mlle de Montpensier and became a member of her string band but was dismissed for having composed some scurrilous verses and music.

He joined the court band of Louis XIV in 1652 as a violinist and soon became composer of dance music to the king and leader of the newly formed Les Petit-Violons du Roi.

In 1658 he began to compose music for the court ballets and from 1664 to 1671 he collaborated with Molière in such works as Le Mariage forcé, La princesse d´Elide and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

From 1672 until the time of his death he worked with the librettist Phillippe Quinault on works varying from the classical Atys (1676) and Isis (1677) to the heroic Roland (1685) and the pastoral Le Temple de la paix (1685).

Lully died from blood poisoning resulting from a wound in his foot caused by his long conducting stick.

Lully was a man of insatiable ambition whose rise from violinist in Louis XIV´s court band was meteoric and was accomplished by brazen and merciless intrigue. He held the royal appointments as Brevet de la Charge de Composition de la Musique de la Chambre du Roi (from 1661) and La Charge de Maître de Musique de la Famille Royale (from 1662). He then acquired from Abbé Perrin and Robert Cambert their patents of operatic production and by 1674 no opera could be performed anywhere inn France without Lully´s permission. In 1681 he received his lettres de nationalisation and his lettres de noblesse. He also became one of the secrétaires du roi, a privilege usually held only by the French aristocracy.

At the outset Lully´s operatic style was thought similar to that of the Italian masters Francesco Cavalli and Luigi Rossi. He quickly assimilated the contemporary French idiom and is credited with then creating a new an original style.

In his ballets he introduced new dances, such as the minuet an used a higher proportion of quicker ones, such as the bourrée, gavotte and guigue; he also introduced women dancers to the stage. The texts in both ballets and operas were French. His operas were described as "tragedies set to music" in reference to their highly developed, innovative, dramatic and theatrical aspects.

He established the form of the French overture and abandoned the recitativo secco style. This last he replaced by an accompanied recitative noted for its great rhythmic freedom with careful word setting and by declamation and innovation that led to a lessening of the demarcation between the recitative and the aria, so that French opera acquired much more contunity. The arias themselves retain many Italian characteristics. Each is written in a particular style and mood: chanson à couplets, air-complainte (arioso) and air déclamé. His operas frequently end with a chaconne movement and in this he was followed by both Rameau and Gluck.

Among Lylly´s other works are several sacred compositions including the famous Miserere and 17 motets; dances for various instruments; suites for trumpets and strings, a form that became very popular in England during the Restoration; and the Suites de Symphonies et Trios.