Group portrait of the French Royal Family dressed as characters from mythology. King Louis XIV is Apollo (1670)
Figures 7.1 and 7.2
Click here for more information on Le Ballet de la nuit (in French)
Watch the recreation of this event in Gerard Corbiau’s film Le roi danse (2000):
Michel Lambert, “Par mes chants,” performed by Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie; Agnès Mellon, soprano:
Music from Figure 7.3
Jean Henry d’Anglebert, Chaconne de Phaeton de Mr. De Lully, from Pièces de clavessin (1689), performed by Christophe Rousset, harpsichord:
Example 7.1
Lully and Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, performed by Le Poème harmonique (complete performance in French and Italian):
Jean-Baptiste Lully, “Enfin il est en ma puissance” from Armide (1686), Act 2, scene 5, performed by Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie; Stephanie d’Oustrac (Armide):
Example 7.2 (example begins at 0:48)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, “Noires filles du Styx” from Medée (1693), Act 4, scene 7, performed by Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, directed by William Christie
Example 7.3 (example begins at 1:25:00)
Jean Berain the Elder, Mademoiselle Rochois in the Title Role of the Opera Armide by Jean- Baptiste Lully (1686)
Figure 7.5
Additional Digital Resources
- Consult Early French Dictionaries from the Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL) in collaboration with the University of Chicago.
- Explore the Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection for Lully scores, livrets (librettos), and other resources on Lully at the University of North Texas
- John Powell (University of Tulsa), a specialist in seventeenth-century French music, has posted a valuable set of scores, performances, multi-media presentations, and articles on his website. Highlights include scores and performances of sacred and secular works by Charpentier. Also see his website for Lully’s Psyché.
- There are now a number of superb performances of French baroque dance available on Youtube, some offering instruction. Here is one sample demonstrating the pavan and another demonstrating the allemande.
- See also the site for the New York Baroque Dance Company – one of the major companies that reconstructs Baroque dances.
Global Resources for Chapter 7
Further Reading
Anthony, James R. French Baroque Music: From Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. Rev. and expanded ed. Portland, OR: Amadeus, 1997. http://www.worldcat.org/title/french-baroque-music-from-beaujoyeulx-to-rameau/oclc/318382803
Banducci, Antonia L. “Staging and Its Dramatic Effect in French Baroque Opera: Evidence from Prompt Notes.”Eighteenth-Century Music 1, no. 1 (2004): 5–28. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/366094806
Burden, Michael, and Jennifer Thorpe, eds. Ballet de la Nuit. Wendy Hilton Dance and Music 15. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2009. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/645679008
Cowart, Georgia. The Triumph of Pleasure: Louis XIV and the Politics of Spectacle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/227000202
Gordon-Seifert, Catherine. Music and the Language of Love: Seventeenth-Century French Airs. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2011. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/639940416
Harris-Warrick, Rebecca. “Ballroom Dancing at the Court of Louis XIV.” Early Music 14, no. 1 (February 1986): 40–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127597
Harris-Warrick, Rebecca, and Carol Marsh. Musical Theatre at the Court of Louis XIV: Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos. Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28708152
Heyer, John Hajdu, ed. Lully Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43245514
Hilton, Wendy. Dance of Court and Theater: The French Noble Style, 1690–1725. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, 1981. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7340976
Howard, Patricia. “The Influence of the Précieuses on Content and Structure in Quinault’s and Lully’s Tragédies Lyriques.” Acta Musicologica 63, fasc. 1 (January–April 1991): 57–72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/932887
Kroll, Mark. “French Masters.” In Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music, 2nd ed., ed. Robert L. Marshall. Routledge Studies in Musical Genres. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/470060009
Lully, Jean-Baptiste. Armide: Tragédie en musique, score ed. Lois Rosow, livret ed. Jean-Noël Laurenti. Lully,OEuvres complètes, serie III, Opéras, vol. 14. Musica Gallica. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2003. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54532775
McClary, Susan. Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/756166982
Montagnier, Jean Paul C. “French Grand Motets and Their Use at the Chapelle Royale from Louis XIV to Louis XVI.” Musical Times 146, no. 1891 (Summer 2005): 47–57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30044089
Pruiksma, Rose A. “Music, Sex, and Ethnicity: Signification in Lully’s Theatrical Chaconnes.” In Gender, Sexuality, and Early Music, ed. Todd Borgerding. Criticism and Analysis of Early Music. New York: Routledge, 2002. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45715850
Rosow, Lois, “French Baroque Recitative as an Expression of Tragic Declamation.” Early Music 11, no. 4 (October 1983): 468–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3137873
Thomas, Downing A. Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Régime, 1647–1785. Cambridge Studies in Opera. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49530155
Music in the Baroque: Companion Website by Wendy Heller 