Born in Florence, Nov 28, 1632
Died in Paris, March 22, 1687
- He was born Giovanni Battista Lulli in Florence, where he studied violin with a Franciscan friar. In 1646 he moved to Paris to tutor Louis XIV’s cousin Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans in Italian. He then studied both music and dance in France.
- In 1653 Lully entered the service of Louis XIV, appointed compositeur de la musique instrumentale. He was “discovered” when he appeared as a dancer in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit, an extravagant 13-hour ballet which starred Louis XIV as Apollo, the Sun King.1
- Fun fact: Lully was both a dancer and composer for the court of Louis XIV, and he was particularly favored for his talent at comic roles.
- Lully spent the rest of his career working for the royal court. When Louis XIV ascended the throne in 1661, Lully became a naturalized French citizen.
- Lully composed ballets, operas, and sacred music for the French court, as well as composing and producing operas for the public.
- The magnificence of the court at Versailles led to artistic imitation all over Europe: Lully’s use of the French overture, or ouverture, led to a particularly popular trend in Baroque music meant to illustrate power or royalty (for example, the overture to Handel’s Messiah is a French overture). 2
- Lully collaborated multiple times with Molière, including their comic ballet Le bourgeois gentilhomme(1670). The two were such a great team that they were known as the “deux Baptiste” (Molière’s birth name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin).
- Fun (Weird? Sad?) Fact: Lully died in 1687 from a gangrenous foot wound. He had bashed his own foot three months earlier while conducting a performance of his Te Deum. Lully conducted by tapping a tall walking-stick type rod on the floor in time to the music.
Sources
- David Vickers, “Le Concert Royal de la Nuit,” Gramophone, accessed November 12, 2019, https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/le-concert-royal-de-la-nuit.
- Christopher H. Gibbs, “Program Notes for Handel’s Messiah,” NPR (December 11, 2006), accessed November 12, 2019, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6588044.
- Jérôme de La Gorce, “Lully, Jean-Baptiste (i),” Grove Music Online, accessed November 12, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278219.