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CHAPTER 35
Music in Paris and
at the Court of Versailles:
Vocal Music
Absolutism: the political
theory according to which
the ultimate power of the
state resides in the hands
of the king who claimed to
rule by divine right. Louis
XIV, the Sun King,
personified the absolute
monarch and it was his
long and authoritarian
reign (1643-1715) that
inspired the political
theory of absolutism.
Versailles
Versailles is a colossal palace built by Louis XIV as
his new residence near Paris. An example of the
grandeur to which Louis aspired, Versailles became
the home of thousands of governmental officials,
courtiers, and hundreds of artists and musicians.
Ballet de cour: a type of
ballet danced by professional
dancers and members of the
court at the French royal court
from the late sixteenth to the
late seventeenth century. It
featured sets of dances and
choruses, simple airs,
instrumental interludes,
pantomime, and lavish scenery
and choreographies. The king
himself often danced in the
closing dance, the grand ballet.
• Air de cour: a simple, strophic song for single
voice or a small group of soloists.
• Vingt-quatre violons du roi: the twenty-four
string instruments of the violin family (violins,
violas, and oversized cellos) that constituted the
core of the French court orchestra.
Jean-Baptiste Lully
• Jean-Baptiste Lully: a native of Florence, Italy,
he served as principal composer of Louis XIV. With
the king's support, Lully gained exclusive authority
over public vocal music in France. Among the
musical institutions over which Lully gained control
was the Académie royale de musique, an opera
company established and financed by the king for
the growth of French opera.
• Tragédie lyrique: a new genre of French opera
created by Lully that fused elements of the ballet de
cour and traditional French tragic theater. Lully's
libretti drew on mythological and chivalric topics to
create thinly disguised allegories in praise of the king
and the aristocracy.
• Divertissement: a lavish choreographed,
diversionary interlude with occasional singing that
interrupted the action of a tragédie lyrique.
• French overture: an instrumental prelude created by
Lully as the opening number of his French operas. It
usually opens with a slow section in duple meter
marked by stately dotted rhythms, followed by a fast
triple-meter section in imitative counterpoint, and a
return to the slow, dotted rhythm of the first section.
Récitatif ordinaire: a new type of recitative developed by Lully
which differs from Italian recitative in its increased length and vocal
range, frequent meter changes, and moments of florid lyricism.
Religious Music
• In his old age, Louis XIV assumed an increasingly
pious life, and his court took on a more devout
decor. Consequently, Lully and other younger
composers were increasingly encouraged to provide
sacred music for the king and his family. Among
the younger generation of composers, MarcAntoine Charpentier introduced Italian church-style
music and oratorio into France.
• Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: French
composer, she was first granted a place as a
performer at the French royal court at the age of
five by Louis XIV. She later established herself in
Paris, where she composed a tragédie lyrique,
instrumental works for harpsichord and violin, and
three books of cantatas.
• Cantate française: flourishing in early eighteenthcentury France, it is a piece of chamber vocal music
projecting a short mythological or scriptural drama
in French. Like an Italian cantata, it unfolds in a
succession of arias and recitatives for solo voice
accompanied by continuo or small orchestra. Most
of the arias in a cantate française were in the
Italianate da capo (ABA) form.