Jean-Baptiste Lully - Miserere (1664)

Описание: Jean-Baptiste Lully (French:, born Giovanni Battista Lulli 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered a master of the French baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in 1661.

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Miserere (1664)

La Chapelle Royale conducted by Philippe Herreweghe

In 1661, Lully became Superintendent of the King's Music and Composer of His Majesty's Chamber. His task was to organize the King's musical diversions, notably the great Court entertainments which culminated in Les Plaisirs de l'Isle enchantée in May 1664. He composed music for ballets (at a rate of over one a year during this period) and began his collaboration with Molière. He received his naturalization papers and married the daughter of Michel Lambert, master of music of the King's Chamber.

What then, during the winter of 1664, inspired this theatrically inclined man of action to write a Miserere for the Chapel Royal, a full motet for soloists, choir and orchestra, when such a task was not part of his duties? The mystery remains unsolved. The work was probably the first example of a style which enjoyed popular esteem until the Revolution. It is as though Lully, versatile creator of so many new musical forms, sought here also to make his mark and point the way towards new architectural possibilities. German cantatas, Italian psalms and English anthems were all inspired by Lully's great design.

The religious context in which Lully wrote this first motet was quite particular. The issue of the "liberties of the Gallican church" (i.e. the place of the spiritual and temporal authorities) was once again prominent in the 1660s. The debate on the question led to a parliamentary declaration in 1663 whose six articles are the precursors of the famous "four articles" of 1682 which marked the French bishops' allegiance to the King. At the same time Louis XIV reorganized his Chapel, appointing two composers, Henry Du Mont and Pierre Robert, in 1663. More than any other work Lully's Miserere, performed before the entire Court, seems to stand as a manifesto for what was expected of a composer at the Chapel Royal: an utterly new form, an innovative design, fit for the King.