Lully, Jean-Baptiste

Period: Baroque

Born: Sunday, November 28, 1632 in Florence, Italy

Died: Saturday, March 22, 1687 in Paris, France

Nation of Origin: Italy/France

Major Works:
Opera:
Armide et Rénaud (1686)
Comedy-Ballets:
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

Other Information:
Quick Facts

Blended ballet and drama to produce the "tragedy lyrique".
Composed operas on mythological themes with interludes of dancing and singing.
Elaborate ballet scenes and choruses
Innovative: used exact notation and proper French declamation in recitative.
Established the first permanent orchestra in Europe consisting of 24 strings.
His orchestrations used a 5-part string texture with more woodwinds (especially solo writing for the oboe and bassoon) than was common at the time. He is credited with the birth of the orchestral ensemble.
He created the French overture, originally just the opening music for the opera, it developed into an independent form. The French overture is in two parts (slow-homophonic followed by fast-contrapuntal).

General Bibliography:
Bukofzer, Manfred F., Music in the Baroque Era, from Monteverdi to Bach, W.W. Norton & Company, November 1947, ISBN: 0393097455

Kennedy, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 1997, ISBN: 0198691629

Palisca, Claude V. Baroque Music, Prentice Hall, December 1990, ISBN: 0130584967

Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John; Editors, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Groves Dictionaries, Inc., January 2001, ISBN: 1561592390

Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura; Editors, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Gale Group, December 2000, ISBN: 0028655257

Links to essays at other sites:

Baroque Music
by Claude V. Palisca

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Biographical essay from the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music
Biographical essay at the Karadar site
If the Karadar link does not work, try searching karadar.com directly.
Biographical essay at the Naxos site
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