Page 73 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

BAROQUE 1600–1750 71

See also: Le jeu de Robin et de Marion 32–35 ■ Euridice 62–63 ■ Hippolyte et Aricie 107 ■ Orfeo ed Euridice 118–119 ■
The Magic Flute 134–137 ■ The Barber of Seville 148 ■ Der Freischütz 149 ■ La traviata 174–175 ■ Tosca 194–197

A skilled violinist, Lully performed the timing of both singers and method of musical direction that
in his own works. He is thought to be orchestra. Indeed, there is an precipitated his untimely demise.
the man holding the violin in François etching of Lully’s later opera, In March 1687, he died from a
Puget’s painting of 1688.
Alceste, premiered in 1674, that gangrenous wound that developed
shows a man “beating time” on after a blow to his toe while
grandiose “Turkish” march with the floor with a staff. Unfortunately beating time as he conducted
lively percussion. Although Lully for Lully, it was this vigorous his own Te Deum. ■
was not the innovator of musical
“orientalism,” he is widely credited Jean-Baptiste Lully
with spreading its influence in the
18th century. His use of a scene- Born into which point he gallicized his
setting overture—an orchestral, a family of name. Lully’s monopoly on
marchlike introduction usually Florentine French opera enabled him to
to allow for royal pageantry and millers in 1632, produce multiple works of his
homage to be paid—became Giovanni own creation. His prolific output
a standard musical feature for Battista Lulli before his early death in 1687
almost all subsequent operas. began his rise through French also included chamber music
society when he gained a and sacred works.
Enter the conductor position as a servant at the
Lully’s increased instrumentation, French court at the age of 14. Other key works
with five-part strings, woodwind, He attracted the attention of 1663 Miserere mei Deus
Louis XIV, with whom he later
and percussion, meant that danced in courtly spectacles. 1674 Alceste
Le bourgeois gentilhomme was By 1661, he had been placed 1677 Te Deum
one of the earliest pieces of music in charge of court music, at 1686 Armide
to require a conductor to coordinate

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