Different genres of music exist that have been particularly impactful over time, such as the baroque music era. The baroque music era was characterized by music with lavish texture and intense composition, as this music mainly aimed at expressing the composer’s emotion. Among the notable contributors to the baroque music era is Jean-Baptiste Lully, a prominent French composer. Lully played a significant role in helping promote baroque music, evidenced by his contributions to ballet and opera. This essay will elaborate on Jean-Baptiste Lully by offering a short bibliography on him, analyzing his music style, comparing his music style with the main characteristics of the baroque music era, and examining why Jean-Baptiste Lully is an important figure in his era.
Biography
Jean-Baptiste Lully was born to miller parents on Nov 28th, 1632, in Italy’s Florence, where he stayed until he was 14. While much of his early history is obscure, in 1946, he was relocated to France by the Duke de Guise and put in service of Mademoiselle de Montpensier (Roule, 2018). He was actively involved in service from 1647 to 1652, working as a chamber boy for Mademoiselle. Following Mademoiselle’s exile from Paris after the Fronde rebellion in 1652, Lully was relieved of his service, and soon after, he gained King Louis XIV’s attention. As of February 1653, he was dancing with the King in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit, and by March of the same year, the King appointed him the royal composer for dance music for the King (Ford & Heyer, 1991). He started composing music for the court ballets in 1658 and gained significant control over the royal family’s court music over the next ten years. During this period, he experimented with performance practices and shifted the basic stylistic features that characterized orchestral music. In 1664, he started collaborating with Jean-Baptiste Moliere for plays, although they broke up in 1672. After acquiring Pierre Perrin’s opera privilege, he was made director of the royal opera. He produced an opera every year from 1673 to 1687, when he met his death from gangrene (Roule, 2018).
Analysis of the composer’s style
Lully’s style was majorly defined by its orchestration. He incorporated new elements and instruments like the timpani and bassoon that he used alongside dessus, quinte, and haute-contre. He also used the organ, flute, recorder, archlute, and guitar. Introducing new instruments and elements to the orchestra helped expand his textures and palette colors, producing and creating a new sound lacking from other composers. The use of new instruments can be seen in his opera, “Armide,” where he combined different instruments to invoke emotion in his audience (Spitzer & Zaslaw, 2004). Another notable element of Lully’s style is that he created the French-style opera known as tragedie lyrique. After realizing that the Italian opera style was inappropriate for French listeners, he worked alongside Philipe Quinault to create a new style and genre (Brooks, 1988). 10-syllable heroic and 12-syllable Alexandrine characterized the tragedies. Additionally, he diverged away from the traditional Italian method of using arias and recitatives as a way of dividing musical numbers and instead opted to combine the two to produce a dramatic effect. Lully’s composition style also had notable harmony, famed for simplicity and clarity (Anthony, 1991). His composition avoided complex chromaticism and used major and minor keys to ensure shining melodies that were primary in his dramatic composition. The use of clear and simple harmonies is evident in the Cadmus et Hermione.
Comparison of style
When examining Lully’s style, it simultaneously diverged from and resembled elements from the Baroque music era. To show that his composition resembled the elements of the Baroque era, Lully used the bass instrument alongside basso continuo in most of his compositions to offer the harmonic feel of orchestras. Using the basso continuo enabled Lully to offer harmonic support and a solid foundation through which his melodies could stand, and composition would be rich in texture (Ford & Heyer, 1991). These instruments also enabled Lully to offer a standard pitch similar to most of the opera at the time. Lully, however, diverged from the elements of traditional Baroque music by using his French heritage to create a new genre that relegated the Italian opera tradition, which, at the time, was the most dominant form of Baroque music. Through his partnership with Philippe Quinault, Lully created a new style, tragedie lyrique, that departed from the traditional Italian style of separating musical numbers into arias and recitatives; instead, his new style involved combining the two (Anthony, 1991). He also diverged away from the elements of the baroque music era by incorporating dance, comedy, and drama in his compositions. This was a departure from traditional baroque music, which focused on harmonies and showcased the composer’s emotion.
Importance of composer
Lully is a significant figure of his era due to his contribution to baroque music. One of the major contributions to his era is that he introduced a new genre of opera, tragedie lyrique, through his collaboration with Philippe Quinault (Brooks, 1988). This new genre diverted from the traditional opera as it incorporated dance, comedy, and drama within one composition. Through this approach, Lully helped revolutionize the French opera tradition, setting the bar high for composers who came after him. Compositions like Phaeton and Armide are among his most performed compositions and have helped form the basis for the French Opera tradition. Lully’s importance is also evidenced by his role in the King’s court. Lully was the director of the royal music, which he used to shape the French opera by incorporating new stylistic features into the orchestra’s music. He is also credited with inventing the French Overture in the 1650s, a form that was elemental to the Classique and Baroque eras.
References
Anthony, J. R. (1991). Air and Aria Added to French Opera from the Death of Lully to 1720. Revue De Musicologie, 77(2), 201. https://doi.org/10.2307/947422
Brooks, W. (1988). Lully and Quinault at court and on the public stage, 1613–86. Seventeenth-century French Studies, 10(1), 101–121. https://doi.org/10.1179/c17.1988.10.1.101
Ford, R., & Heyer, J. H. (1991). Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Music of the French Baroque: Essays in honor of James R. Anthony. Notes, 47(3), 737. https://doi.org/10.2307/941869
Roule, N. (2018). The Operas of Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Negotiation of Absolutism in the French Provinces, 1685-1750. https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/41126915
Spitzer, J., & Zaslaw, N. (2004). The birth of the orchestra: history of an institution, 1650-1815. Oup Oxford.
write