page_title: History of music in Paris
section_title: 17th century - royal court music, ballet and opera
hierarchical_section_title: History of music in Paris / 17th century - royal court music, ballet and opera
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: orchestraitsinst00sing (find matches) Title: The orchestra and its instruments Year: 1917 (1910s) Authors: Singleton, Esther, d. 1930 Subjects: Orchestra Musical instruments Publisher: New York&#160;: The Symphony society of New York Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: otwenty-one. This Orchestra played at the Court balls,at the morning toilet (or lever) of the King, at thedinner (or grand couvert) and on various other occasions.Some persons thought it played even better thanthe Twenty-Four. LuIIy composed a great numberof dances for it — sarabandes, gigues, chaconnes,etc., which delighted the King and his Court. Some-times the two Orchestras played together underLuIIys guiding hand. Jean-Baptiste LuIIy now became the most importantmusician in Europe. After a time he felt that the vio-lin, which he played so well, was beneath his dignity,so he gave it up and devoted himself to the harpsi-chord. He staged and danced in ballets for the Court;wrote operas to the poetic libretti of Quinault and pro-duced them with superb scenery; and he composed allthe musical interludes for all of Molieres plays! He also played in several of Molieres comedies.He took the part of the physician in Pourceaugnacand he played the comical Muphti in he BourgeoisGentilhomme. Text Appearing After Image: ONE OF THE TWENTY-FOUR VIOLINS OF THE KING, l688 THE ORCHESTRA 161 y LuIIy ruled like a king. LuIIy was the King of Music, not only in France,but in all of Europe in those grand days when Francestood at the head of all nations in wealth and powerunder her Sun-King. One day in 1687, while conducting a Te Deum inhonor of the Kings recovery from an illness, LuIIy,the better to demonstrate his zeal, the contem-porary account relates, he himself beat the time withthe cane he used for this purpose, and he struck himselfin the heat of action a blow upon the end of his foot.This caused a small blister.* The quack doctorwho was summoned was incompetent and LuIIy diedfrom blood-poisoning. He left four houses in Parisand a large fortune. His portraits, which represent him in the bigflowing curls of the day — much like the Kings ownwig — and with large heavy features, are said bycontemporaries to flatter him. LuIIy was an undoubted genius and he was alwaysclever. We sometimes wonder if he did Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The city of Paris has been an important center for European music since the Middle Ages. It was noted for its choral music in the 12th century, for its role in the development of ballet during the Renaissance, in the 19th century it became famous for its music halls and cabarets, and in the 20th century for the first performances of the Ballets Russes, its jazz clubs, and its part in the development of serial music. Paris has been home to many important composers, to name a few: Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Niccolò Piccinni, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Jacques Offenbach, Georges Bizet, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Hector Berlioz, Paul Dukas, Gabriel Fauré, César Franck, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Vincent d'Indy, Camille Saint-Saëns, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, Sidney Bechet...
context_section_description: In the 17th century, music played an important part at the French royal court; there was no day without music.  Louis XIII composed songs, and in 1618 organized the first permanent orchestra in France, called La Grande Bande or the Twenty-four ordinary violins of the King, who performed for royal balls, celebrations, and official ceremonies. His son, Louis XIV, an accomplished musician, was taught the guitar and the harpsichord by the best musicians of the period. In 1647, Jean-Baptiste Lully was brought to Paris from his native Florence to be in the service of La Grande Mademoiselle. In early 1653, he caught the attention of Louis XIV, who named him court composer for instrumental music. Under Lully, music became not simply entertainment, but an expression of royal majesty and power.The royal ministers, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin encouraged the development of French music in place of the Italian style.
  In the families of the nobles and the wealthy, children were taught to sing and to play musical instruments, such as harp, flute, guitar, and harpsichord, either in the convent schools, or at home with private tutors. Louis XIV established the Royal Academy of Music (Académie royale de musique) in 1672, and commissioned Lully to create a music school, but a school for opera singers in Paris was not opened until 1714, and its quality was very poor; it closed in 1784.  One notable music teacher and composer was Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, Louis XIV's harpsichord teacher, whose compositions established the French school of harpsichord music.
  The Air de Cour, or Court Air, became very popular in the early 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIII, both at the royal court and in the palaces of the nobility and the wealthy. It was designed to be sung in a large room (chamber) where the nobility entertained their intimate friends. They usually were improvised songs on the themes of gallantry and love, in the form of a dialogue, performed with the lute and the théorbe. The composer Pierre Guéron, music teacher to the children of the King, published several books of court airs, and trained Angélique Paulet, the most famous Parisian singer of the early 17th century. The published songs were learned and sung by both nobles and wealthy Parisians.
caption: One of the twenty-four violinists of the King, the first permanent court orchestra
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