Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully is known as a very important prolific composer and the creator of French Opera. He is considered by many the chief master of the French baroque style. Although Italian born, Lully flourished in France. His work is very significant to French culture and history. Throughout the majority of his life he made an impact. These impacts can be seen through his childhood and growing years, his works and musical compositions, and his influence on future composers and their music. Giovanni Battista Lulli was born in Florence Italy in on November 28, 1632 and was the son of a miller. Later, once in France, changing his last name to Lully, he spent the majority of his childhood learning music and performing.
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Lully became so dominate because he was granted the exclusive right to produce operas in Paris. A patent was granted to him by the king to have control over all of the music that was being created. He produced a new opera every year, besides one where he created a smaller production, until his death. Most of his operas were librettos which he made in collaboration with his librettist, Philippe Quinault (Parker 36). When Lully achieved success with his setting of Quinault's Cadmus et Hermione, he gave his wordsmith a contract of one libretto a year for 4,000 livres. The result was eleven Tragedies en Musique and a pair of large-scale ballets (Pettitt …show more content…
The French made minor adjustments but they were native works. They inserted ballet music and added extravagant layers to the staging. Before the 1660’s, France barely had a name in the industry of Opera. They created a combination of Italian Opera and other forms and styles, with a rich evidence of French history and spoken drama (Pettitt 18). Lully created an epidemic that was so incredibly prominent, with elements that can be seen in music for the next several hundred year. Lully himself drew techniques, artistry, and musicality from other musicians and styles. He mixed elements from Venetian opera and other older styles. He writes so that recitative moves in and out of shifting verse-structures, much like the Italian style (Parker 36). He viewed his task as the heightening and underscoring of a poetic text. He fitted the music to the words, and did not torture the words to fit the music. He was experimental and he was not an expert because he was the first one creating works like this. Overall he enjoyed fine orchestration and beautifully carved melodies (Brockway, Weinstock 54, 55). His incredibly complex use of powerful choruses and developed instrumentation, along with huge amounts of depth often using five-part writing, often with the unusual use of three violas, is what makes him stand out over Italian opera and other genres alike. For the next half-century, musicians and composers created a term
Lully became so dominate because he was granted the exclusive right to produce operas in Paris. A patent was granted to him by the king to have control over all of the music that was being created. He produced a new opera every year, besides one where he created a smaller production, until his death. Most of his operas were librettos which he made in collaboration with his librettist, Philippe Quinault (Parker 36). When Lully achieved success with his setting of Quinault's Cadmus et Hermione, he gave his wordsmith a contract of one libretto a year for 4,000 livres. The result was eleven Tragedies en Musique and a pair of large-scale ballets (Pettitt …show more content…
The French made minor adjustments but they were native works. They inserted ballet music and added extravagant layers to the staging. Before the 1660’s, France barely had a name in the industry of Opera. They created a combination of Italian Opera and other forms and styles, with a rich evidence of French history and spoken drama (Pettitt 18). Lully created an epidemic that was so incredibly prominent, with elements that can be seen in music for the next several hundred year. Lully himself drew techniques, artistry, and musicality from other musicians and styles. He mixed elements from Venetian opera and other older styles. He writes so that recitative moves in and out of shifting verse-structures, much like the Italian style (Parker 36). He viewed his task as the heightening and underscoring of a poetic text. He fitted the music to the words, and did not torture the words to fit the music. He was experimental and he was not an expert because he was the first one creating works like this. Overall he enjoyed fine orchestration and beautifully carved melodies (Brockway, Weinstock 54, 55). His incredibly complex use of powerful choruses and developed instrumentation, along with huge amounts of depth often using five-part writing, often with the unusual use of three violas, is what makes him stand out over Italian opera and other genres alike. For the next half-century, musicians and composers created a term