| A | B |
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| French Baroque music | Its special qualities were shaped by the centrality of dance and the role of the arts in an absolute monarchy (reflects King Louis XIV, who ruled for 7-decades) |
| Louis XIV | (r. 1643-1715) Finally took throne after his mother (Anne of Austria) and her husband (Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian)= When he took throne after Mazarin's death in 1661 (following series of revolts against the rule of foreigners), he remember those years of tumult and resolved to assert absolute authority= To maintain power, he projected image of himself as in supreme control, using the arts as propaganda tools= Styled himself "the Sun King"= Identified himself with Apollo (god of the arts, sciences, etc.)= Centralized the arts and sciences, establishing royal academies of sculpture and painting, dance, literature, the sciences, opera, and architecture, and giving each academy the power to oversee endeavors in its field |
| Versailles | Was a huge palace constructed by Louis in the country at Versailles= Versailles demonstrated/set in stone/proclaimed Louis's power and also served a practical purpose= Specifically, the nobility were partly independent and could be dangerous (as proven by the Fronde rebellions)= By keeping the aristocracy at Versailles for large parts of the year, away from their lands and focused on court ceremonies, etiquette, entertainment, he kept them under his firm control |
| French Culture and dance | Dance, both social and theatrical, was very important in French culture and to Louis= Ballets had flourished/boomed at court since the "Ballet comique de la reine" (The Queen's Dramatic Ballet, 1581)= Louis XIII regularly took part in the dance and Louis XIV was a great dancer |
| Court Ballet | (Ballet de Cour) Was a substantial musical-dramatic work, staged with costumes and scenery, that featured members of the court alongside professional dancers= Typical court ballet had several acts, each composed of a series of ENTR'EES (French for "entries"_ that included solo songs, choruses, and instrumental dances in styles appropriate to the characters portrayed by the dancers |
| Dance and political control | Dance reinforced the state by offering a model of discipline, order, refinement, restraint, and subordination of the individual to a common enterprise= Required aristocrats to participate in social dancing kept them busy and provided a ritualized demonstration of the social hierarchy, with the king at the top= So, its NO WONDER that French Baroque music, so centered on dance, is marked by refinement, elegance, and restraint, in strong contrast to the individuality and showmanship typical of Italian music at the time |
| Music at court | Music for the king was extremely hierarchical= Were 150 to 200 musicians in 3 DIVISIONS (Music of the Royal Chapel; Music of the Chamber; Music of the Great Stable) |
| The Music of the Royal Chapel | Included singers, organists, and other instrumentalists who performed for religious services |
| The Music of the Chamber | Primarily string, lute, harpsichord, and flute players, provided music for indoor entertainments |
| The Music of the Great Stable | Comprised wind, brass, and timpani players, who played for military and outdoor ceremonies and sometimes joined the chapel or indoor music, adding instrumental color |
| French String Orchestras | Although the French often preferred the viol for chamber and solo music, they created the first large ensembles of the violin family= These became the model for the modern ORCHESTRA |
| Orchestra | An ensemble whose core consists of strings with more than 1 player performing each part |
| Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roi | (Twenty-Four Violins of the King) Was established by Louis XIII= Typically played music in a 5-part texture: 6 soprano violins, tuned like the modern violin, on the melody; 12 alto & tenor violins tuned like the modern viola, divided among 3 inner parts; 6 bass violins, tuned a whole tone lower than the modern cello, on the bass line |
| Petits Violons | (Small Violin Ensemble) Was created for Louis XIV's personal use= Had 18 strings |
| Jean-Baptiste Lully | (1632-1687) Was Louis XIV's favorite musician for over 3 decades= Wrote music for ballets and religious services at court but earned greatest success with dramatic music= Late 1670s, created distinctive French kind of opera (with Louis's help) |
| Jean-Baptiste Lully: Influences | After Francesco Cavalli (wrote "Ercole Amante" in 1662 under Cardinal Mazarin's rule) departure (Lully was influenced by him), Lully collaborated with comic playwright Jean-Baptiste Moliere to create a series of successful COMEDIES-BALLETS |
| Commedies-Ballets | Blended elements of ballet and opera (however, Lully didn't yet think of the full opera= The ballet tradition seemed to strong) |
| French literary culture | Demanded that poetry and drama be given priority on the stage and considered dialogue in song to lack believability= The domination of music and singing in Italian opera therefore seemed unsuitable for France |
| Jean-Baptiste Lully and the opera | However, successful experiments by others convinced Lully that opera in French was viable |
| Academie Royale de Musique | In 1672, with Louis XIV's support, Lully purchased a royal privilege granting him the exclusive right to produce sung drama in France and thus established this royal academy= Along with his libretist, playwright Jean-Philippe Quinault (1635-1688), Lully reconciled the demands of drama, music, and ballet in a new French form of opera, "TRAGEDIE EN MUSIQUE" (tragedy in music)...later named "TRAGEDIE LYRIQUE" |
| Trag'edie en Musique | ("Tragedy in music"; later named "Trag'edie Lyrique) Was Lully's new type French form of opera |
| Quinault's Dramas | His 5-act dramas combined serious plots from ancient mythology or chivalric tales with frequent DIVERTISSEMENTS (diversions)= His texts were overtly and covertly propagandistic, in tune with Louis's use of the arts= Each opera included a prologue, often singing the king's praises literally or through allegory= The plots depicted a well-ordered, disciplined society, and the mythological characters and settings reinforced the parallels Louis sought to draw between his regime and ancient Greece and Rome= The LIBRETTOS also provided opportunities for spectacles to entertain the audience |
| Divertissements | (Diversions) Long interludes of dancing and choral episodes of romance and adventure with adulation of the king, glorification of France, and moral reflection |
| Lully's Music | Projected formal splendor of Louis's court= Each opera began with an OUVERTURE (french for "opening"), or "overture" |
| Ouverture | (French for "opening"; "overture") Marking the entry of the king (when he was present) and welcoming him and the audience to the performance= Lully's overtures were very grand and followed a format that he already used in his ballets known as a FRENCH OVERTURE |
| French Overture | 2 Sections, each played twice |
| French Overture: 1st Section | First is homophonic and majestic, marked by dotted rhythms and figures rushing toward teh downbeats |
| French Overture: 2nd Section | Second is faster and begins with a semblance of fugal imitation, sometimes returning at the end to the tempo and figuration of the first section (EX: Lully's opera "Armide") |
| Divertissement | (random break, like a dance for example) Usually appeared at the center or end of every act (of Lull'y operas), but its connection to the surrounding plot was often weak= They extended episodes, which directly continued the French ballet tradition, offered opportunities for great choruses and a string of dances, each with colorful costumes and elaborate choreography= Were very appealing to the public |
| Dances from Lully's ballets and operas | Became SO popualr that they were arranged in independent instrumental suites, and many new suites were composed imitating his divertissements |
| How did Lully project drama | Adapted Italian recitative to French language and poetry (was very difficult since the recitative typical in Italian opera at the time was not suited for French rhythms and accents) |
| Lully: Recitatives | In his recitatives, he followed the contours of spoken French while shifting the metric notation between duple and triple to allow the most natural and expressive declamation of the words= Thus Lully's recitatives continue the French tradition of using irregular metric groupings to reflect the rhythms of the text |
| Lully: 2 Styles of Recitative | One metrically fluid, the other more measured= The terms "RE'CITATIF SIMPLE" (simple recitative) and "R'ECITATIF MEASUR'E" (measured recitative) are often used for this distinction |
| Airs | Lyrical moments were cast as airs, songs with a rhyming text and regular meter and phrasing, often in the meter and form of a dance= Much less elaborate and effusive/free than Italian arias, airs were typically syllabic, with a tuneful melody, little repetition, and no virtuosic display |
| Armide= Armide's monoluge in Act II, scene 5 | pg. 362 |
| Armide's Monologue | (by Lully) Illustrates the power of Lully's operas= Mixture of recitative, air, and orchestral interludes allowed Lully to convey Armide's intense, rapidly changing feelings of tension, vengeance, doubt, and love through simple but effective means= Limiting vocal display to tuneful melodies with a few ornaments reclaimed musical theater from the domination of singers then current in Italian opera and focused attention on the dramatic speaking of words, while making room for simple entertainment of divertissements, costumes, and stage effects |
| Armide's Monologue: Elegance and naturalism | Contrast between raw emotions depicted in this scene and the stylized divertissement that directly precedes it embodies an aesthetic dichotomy/split of French Baroque art and music; between refined elegance and the desire to convey human passions in a way that was true to nature= Thus, Lully's balance between values of elegance and naturalism made his operas successful both politically and dramatically |
| Notes In'egales | (Unequal Notes) Example of some typically French elements that can't be seen in the music's notation but were added in performance= Was considered a form of expression and elegance, left to the players' discretion, where passages notated in even, short durations were often played by alternating longer notes on the beat with shorter offbeats, producing lilting rhythms like triplets or dotted figures |
| Overdotting | (Similar in nature to "Notes In'egales") When a dotted note is held longer than its notated value (according to the performer's taste) while the following short note is shortened= These changes emphasize the beats and sharpen the rhythmic profile |
| Agr'ements | (Brief Ornaments) Although the elaborate embellishments of Italian singers were considered in bad taste, performers were expected to use these, whether notated or not, to adorn cadences and other important notes |
| Lully's Music: Tonal | His music was TONAL, in new system of major and minor keys, rather than modal (EX: common harmonic progressions move forward in predictable manner to close on a dominant-tonic cadence)= Lully sometimes evades the cadence by using a first-inversion tonic triad to prolong the harmonic tension and intensify the ultimate resolution |
| The Air | Was the leading genre of vocal chamber music in France= Composers wrote airs in a variety of styles and types, from courtly vocal music to songs of a popular cast= The "AIR DE COUR" gradually outdated, replaced by other types like the "AIR S'ERIEUX" ("serious air") and "AIR A' BOIRE" (drinking song), the former on love, pastoral, or political topics, and the latter on light or frivolous topics= Both were often syllabic and strophic and were scored for 1 to 3 voices with lute or continuo accompaniment |
| Marc-Antoine Charpentier | (1634-1704) One of most popular composers of solo airs= Fused French-style embellishments and borrowed form Italian lyric aria style to create very melodic pieces |
| Church Music: Until 1650 | French church music was dominated by the old style of Renaissance counterpoint |
| Church Music: After 1650 | French church music (both in sacred and secular vocal music) composers borrowed genres inventied in Italy (notably the SACRED CONCERTO AND ORATORIO) but wrote in distinctively French styles |
| Composers in the royal chapel | Produced many motets on Latin texts= Were of 2 main types: the PETIT MOTET (small motet) and GRAND MOTET (large motet) |
| Petit Motet | (Small Motet) A sacred concerto for few voices with continuo |
| Grand Motet | (Large Motet) For soloists, double chorus, and orchestra, corresponding to the large-scale concertos of Gabrieli and Schutz= Featured many sections in different meters and tempos, having preludes, vocal solos, ensembles, and choruses |
| pg. 366-367 | pg. 366-367 |
