the centralization of music in the reign of louis xiv

Society for French Historical Studies

The Centralization of Music in the Reign of Louis XIVAuthor(s): Robert M. IsherwoodSource: French Historical Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Autumn, 1969), pp. 156-171Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/286163 .

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The Centralization of Music in the Reign of Louis XIV

Robert M. Isherwood

Convinced by the record of the past1 that the fine arts, especially music, contributed to a ruler's esteem, glory, and authority, Louis XIV was determined to centralize control of the arts and to coordinate artistic activity through a group of royal academies. The king earnestly wanted his reign to be famous for its artistic brilliance, and he believed that musicians, poets, painters, sculptors, and architects could preserve his great deeds for posterity. Louis aspired not only to surpass the achievements of classical antiquity but to establish France's artistic supremacy in Europe. Attaining artistic self-sufficiency and preponder- ance was consistent with the underlying assumptions of Colbertian mercantilism and with Louis' ambitions to dominate Europe. The

Mr. Isherwood, who is an assistant professor of history at Vanderbilt University, wishes to thank the Research Council of Vanderbilt for assistance in preparing this article. A version of the article was read at the Southern Historical Association's meeting in New Orleans on November 9, 1968.

l The predecessors of Louis XIV had supported musical institutions. The first French academy of music (Acad6mie de musique et de poesie) was founded by Jean-Antoine de Baif and formally recognized by lettres patentes issued in 1570 by Charles IX. See Durey de Noinville, Jacques Bernard, and Louis Travenol, Histoire du thedtre de l'opdra en France depuis l'etablissement de l'Academie royale de musique jusqu'i present (Paris, 1753), pp. 12-18; and Romain Rolland, Les Origines du theatre lyrique moderne: histoire de l'opera en Europe avant Lully et Scarlatti (nouv. ed.; Paris, 1931), pp. 236-37. Al- though the Academie was disbanded around 1585, the crown continued supporting music. Louis XIII, for example, employed a chamber orchestra called the vingt-quatre violons du roi whose chief function was to accompany opulent court ballets produced during his reign. Cardinal Mazarin unwittingly provided his enemies with reasons for opposing his financial administration when he imported musicians from Rome and spent large amounts of money staging lavish Italian operatic spectacles in Paris. See John E. Borland, "French opera before 1750," Proceedings of the Musical Association, London, 33d session, 1906-1907 (London, 1907), pp. 134-35; Donald Jay Grout, "Some Forerunners of the Lully Opera," Music and Letters, XXII (Jan. 1941), 8-14; Arthur Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, 1597-1940 (2d ed. rev.; Geneva, 1955), pp. 15-25. Louis XIV's youthful enthusiasm for dancing, which Mazarin encouraged, ensured the continuation of the monarchical support of music.



CENTRALIZATION OF MUSIC IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV

richest, most independent, and most powerful kingdom in Europe must minimize the cultural competition of its rivals and develop its own artistic resources, thereby setting the standards for others to follow.

Moreover, within the kingdom music and the other arts served the monarchy in two politically significant ways. First, they could be used to distract the previously revolutionary nobility whom Louis drew to Versailles. Although the king's special attention to music was dictated in part by his personal taste, he also put special stress on musical productions because of their entertainment value and their social utility. He bedazzled the nobles with a daily diet of musical dramas, divertissements, spectacles, and ceremonies. In short, music helped Louis to carry out the emasculation of the court aristocracy. Furthermore, music, drama, poetry, the dance, and the art of decora- tion, as combined in the opera, could project a god-like image of the king as the heroic conqueror, the benevolent peacemaker, the gallant lover, and the magnanimous ruler of a prosperous and orderly realm. In no other artistic form was Louis' image of grandeur and power more effectively projected to the court and to the public than in the music-dramas whose subjects were selected personally by him and whose texts were imaginative encomiums of his exploits. Thus the fine arts, their support, protection, and control, were the business of the state. The Mercure galant wrote: "The establishment of academies is a very serious affair because of the utility which the state can derive from them."2

Without doubt Louis' motives in centralizing the fine arts through the royal academies of dance (1661), inscriptions (1663), painting and sculpture (1664), and architecture (1671) were not so clearly formu- lated in his mind as has been implied. Nevertheless, centralization of the arts was consistent with the policies of his predecessors and with the absolutism followed by Louis from the outset of his reign. Many writers of the seventeenth century3 had stressed the political, social, and moral usefulness of the arts to a well-governed state, and the im-

portant function performed by music and the arts within the evolving system of centralized government had become quite apparent in the

2 Le Mercure galant, July 1687, p. 34. 3 See, for example, Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle contenant la theorie et

la pratique de la musique . .. (Paris, 1636); Claude-Franqois Menestrier, Des representations en musique anciens et modernes (Paris, 1681); Michel de Pure, Idee des spectacles anciens et nouveaux (Paris, 1668).

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FRENCH HISTORICAL STUDIES

decades after the establishment of the academies, when the perpetua- tion of Louis' image became more of a necessity than a luxury.

The prime mover of Louis XIV's artistic projects was the Con- troller-General, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Colbert was instrumental in

launching most of the academies in the 1660's. He served as the patron of the Academie des inscriptions, medailles, et belles-lettres, whose duties included advising composers on suitable subjects and texts for

operas. In a letter to Colbert, Jacques de la Cassagne, one of the lead-

ing members of the Academie, wrote: "I know that it is your intention that no significant event be allowed to pass without working for the

king's glory."4 Colbert also helped to establish and develop the Acade- mie de peinture et sculpture, and in his capacity as Superintendent of

Buildings he directed the work of the Academie d'architecture. In

carrying out these projects Colbert's policy was to make France not

only self-sufficient but preeminent in the arts. Realizing that French artists had much to learn from foreigners, he imported artists and craftsmen from Venice and Flanders and established the French

Academy in Rome. His primary objective, however, was to develop native talent in order to make France so superior in the arts that other countries would send their artists to study French models. As Victor-L.

Tapie has written: "Once the native French artists had been trained, their style, Colbert thought, would be recognized by everyone as

supreme. Then foreigners would flock to France, and only to France, to learn everything they had previously learnt in other countries. It was a resolute and logical policy, nicely calculated to enhance the

prestige of France."5

In evaluating Colbert's role in promoting and centralizing the arts, one must not underestimate his conviction, which he shared with the

king, that money spent to support royal grandeur was spent wisely and

purposefully. The picture of Colbert as the loyal but frustrated servant of a prodigal king determined to pursue gloire is the overdrawn creation of historians bent on separating the prudent, well-meaning finance minister from his vainglorious monarch. In truth, if Colbert was unhappy over the drain on the treasury caused by Louis' military adventures, he enthusiastically supported expenditures aimed at the artistic embellishment of the king's image. With Louis he believed

4 Paris, Mar. 12, 1664, Correspondance administrative sous le regne de Louis XIV, ed. G. P. Depping (Paris, 1855), IV, 534.

5Victor-L. Tapie, The Age of Grandeur: Baroque Art and Architecture, trans. A. Ross Williamson (New York, 1960), p. 133.

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that the arts contributed to the grandeur of the monarchy and that whatever promoted royal grandeur also enhanced the strength and

prestige of the nation. The king must cultivate the arts even in time of war, Colbert wrote, because "they will help to perpetuate his grand and glorious deeds."6 Thus, opposed to the luxury of war, Colbert

approved luxury in the arts; indeed, he sanctioned for Louis all the luxuries which he denied himself. For Colbert, royal grandeur was no less a necessity of state than it was for Louis. "If one cannot understand this attitude," Tapie has written, "this longing for grandeur and

prestige, one cannot really understand Colbert."7

Centralization of the arts in the reign of Louis XIV culminated in the establishment of the Academie royale de musique in 1669. The centralization of music proved more difficult, however, than organiz- ing the other fine arts. The crown became involved in a struggle for control of the academy among its founders, and the academy's success was closely tied to the creation of a national operatic style responsive to the court's enthusiasm for dancing, visual spectacle, and musical

simplicity. Opera was the perfect vehicle for the dramatic projection of the king's image; yet in the early years of Louis' reign, France was

obliged to fall back on operatic productions and performers imported from Italy. Although they enjoyed a fleeting popularity in Paris prior to the Fronde, Italian operas failed to please Louis' court and did not

satisfy the need for a national musical genre. The French responded coolly to opera in the Italian language and to the complicated, florid musical style of Pietro Francesco Cavalli, whose operas, Xerxes and Ercole Amante, were performed at the court in the early 1660's.8 The failure of Italian opera, along with his belief that the French language was not suitable for music-drama, dissuaded France's most successful

young composer, the Florentine-born Jean-Baptiste Lully, from at-

6 Letter to Charles Errard, July 23, 1671, Correspondance . . ., IV, 573. 7 Tapie, Age of Grandeur, p. 125. 8 In the case of both operas (several performances of each opera were given in the

Louvre and in the Tuileries), the French audience, comprised mainly of members of the aristocracy and the court, found the compositions boring and "too Italian." They responded favorably only to the special ballets composed by Lully and danced by the king and to the royal pomp and theatrics. See Jean Loret, La Muze historique ou recueil des lettres en vers contenant des nouvelles du temps ecrites a son altesse Mademoi- zelle de Longueville, depuis Duchesse de Nemours (1650-1665), ed. M. M. J. Ravenel and Ed. V. de la Pelouze (nouv. ed.; Paris, 1657), III, 284, 286-87, 290, 397, 465-67, 471-72, and 492. See also Nicolas Boindin, Lettres historiques sur tous les spectacles de Paris (Paris, 1719), I, 35-71; Boscheron (unidentified), "Vie de M. Quinault de l'Academie franqaise, avec l'origine des opera en France," 1715, Bibliotheque nationale, MS fr 24329, fol. 67.

159




tempting the composition of a French opera. If opera was ever to succeed in France, it was clear that it would not be Italian, that.it would have to appeal to the French love of ballet and spectacle, and that it would need the support of the crown.

Despite Lully's lack of interest the way was prepared for a national opera and for the establishment of a royal academy by Pierre Perrin, a minor poet who enjoyed the patronage of the Duc d'Orleans, and Robert Cambert, an undistinguished composer in the service of the queen mother.9 In April 1659 Cambert and Perrin produced a musical comedy known as the Pastorale d'Issy at the home of Guil- laume-Nicholas de la Haye, the queen mother's maitre d'h6tel. Pos- sessing somewhat clearer vision of the court's musical needs than Lully, Perrin boldly labeled his composition the "premiere comedie fran5oise en musique represent6e en France" and described it as a triumph for "our poetry and music over a foreign language, poetry, and music." In a letter to his friend Cardinal de la Rovera, Archbishop of Turin and formerly apostolic nuncio to France,10 Perrin contended that, unlike other Frenchmen, he did not despair of creating opera in the French language. Perrin dedicated himself to "eradicating the faults of the Italians" and to creating a form which has "the ability to express the passions in a more touching manner" than ordinary drama. He referred to Italian music as "plain chant and cloister airs, which we call songs of the hurdy-gurdy or of the ricochet-a music of the gutter." Perrin lampooned the ridiculous plots, rambling recitatives, excessively florid, repetitious arias, and stilted sentiments of the Italians.1 In comparison, he claimed that his Pastorale offered a wide

9J. B. Weckerlin, "Notice sur Cambert et son oeuvre," in Robert Cambert and Pierre Perrin, Pomone, pastorale en 5 actes et le prologue, in Les Chefs-d'oeuvres clas- siques de l'opSra franfaise (Paris, n.d.), III, 12-15. Because of the rivalry over the founding of the Acad6mie royale de musique, Lully's opponents accused him of having hired assassins to murder Cambert. In fact, in 1672 Cambert went to England, where he died in 1677. See also Henry Pruni6res, "Lully and the Academie de musique et de danse," trans. Theodore Baker, The Musical Quarterly, XI (Oct. 1925), 528-30.

10 Perrin included some of the verses of the Pastorale in his letter, and he noted that the archbishop had gone over the early sketches of the Pastorale with him on a prior occasion in Paris. The letter, dated April 30, 1659, is printed in Pierre Perrin, Les Oeuvres de podsie (Paris, 1661), pp. 273-90, and copied in Claude and Francis Parfaict, "Histoire de l'Academie royale de musique depuis son ttablissement jusqu't present," BN, MS fr 12355, pp. 34.

11The description of seventeenth-century Italian opera (specifically Venetian opera after 1650) by the musicologist Donald Jay Grout comes close to confirming Perrin's derogatory judgment: "The plots were a jumble of improbable characters and situations, an irrational mixture of serious and comic scenes, and served mainly as pretexts for striking stage effects, pleasant melodies, and beautiful solo singing. Vocal virtuosity had not yet reached the dizzying heights it attained in the eighteenth century, but the way was being prepared. The chorus had practically disappeared, the orchestra had little

160




range of natural emotions affectively expressed. He concluded: "I have the distinction of having opened and smoothed the path, of having discovered and cleared this new earth, and furnished to my nation a model of French comedy in music." Perrin's claims, however, were exaggerated. The Pastorale d'lssy was not an especially original work. In form, subject matter, and verse it greatly resembled the pastoral plays of the 1650's, yet the Pastorale was less of a cohesive drama than a series of disjointed musical tableaux.

The Pastorale d'Issy attracted large crowds and was well received.12 News of the piece reached the king, and Perrin was invited to give a

performance of his composition in May at Vincennes for the court. In his letter to the Archbishop of Turin, Perrin noted the pleasure of the king and particularly of Mazarin, who "confessed his surprise at its success and indicated to M. Cambert his intention of having similar pieces undertaken for him."13 At Mazarin's request Perrin and Cam- bert began work on a new piece called Ariane, ou le mariage de Bacchus. Mazarin's death in 1661, however, deprived them of his patronage.

Perrin had great hopes of success for Ariane. He continued working on the piece in spite of his incarceration for indebtedness in 1659. By the time of his release from jail in 1666 Perrin had completed a collection of poems intended for musical settings, which he dedicated and sent to Colbert. The collection included verses for Ariane and for a new drama, La Mort d'Adonis. In the dedication Perrin wrote: "Since I know, Monseigneur, that in working principally for the glory and the grandeur of our monarch, you do not neglect that which can contribute to his pleasures, I have thought that upon reading this collection you could perhaps arrange to give him the pleasure of hearing a few of these novelties executed in music; in order to allow you the liberty of so doing, before having this work printed and making the words public, I offer them to you in manuscript."'4 In light of the glory of the king and of France in so many areas, Perrin continued, it is unthinkable that "a nation everywhere victorious be conquered by foreigners in the knowledge of these two fine arts,

to do except accompany, and the recitatives were of only slight musical interest: the aria reigned supreme, and its victory in one sense marked the victory of popular taste over the aristocratic refinement of the original operatic recitatives of the Floren- tines and Monteverdi...." Donald Jay Grout, A History of Western Music (New York, 1960), p. 309.

12 Loret, Muze historique, III, 51-52. 13 Perrin, Oeuvres de podsie, p. 277; see also Menestrier, Rdprdsentations, pp. 208-11. 14 BN, MS fr 2208, fols. lv.-2r.

161




poetry and music." Perrin admitted that the Italians had held the

upper hand in recent years, but he assured Colbert that the language and poetry of the French "are able to express the same beauties as theirs and . . . have the same advantages for music." Although his dedication does not mention the matter, Perrin may have suggested the establishment of an academy of music to Colbert at this time. In

any event, subsequent to the presentation of Ariane at the H6tel de Nevers in 1669, Louis XIV granted Perrin lettres patentes calling for the establishment of "Academies d'opera ou representations en mu-

sique en langue fran5oise sur le pied de celles d'Italie." The lettres patentes, signed by Louis and Colbert on June 28,

1669, and distributed to the king's counselors and the Parlement of Paris, remarked upon the production of operas in Italy under the

sponsorship of the Pope, Italian princes, and members of noble families. The king called for the production of similar pieces in the French language. The lettres granted Perrin permission to establish academies in Paris and other cities in France for the purpose of "pro- ducing and singing publicly operas and performances in French verse and music." Recognizing the large expenditures necessary for the theaters, machines, decorations, and costumes, Louis permitted Perrin to charge the public whatever admission fee he deemed appropriate, and he accorded Perrin the right to station guards at the doors of the theater to preserve order. No one else could undertake similar productions without Perrin's consent, and failure to comply with this

ruling would result in a fine of 10,000 livres. Furthermore, the lettres

granted ladies and members of the nobility the right to participate in the performances without detracting from their noble station. By creating the Academie royale de musique, Louis affirmed his purpose of "desiring to contribute to the advancement of the arts in our

kingdom and to treat favorably the said exponent [Perrin] as much out of consideration for the services he has rendered lately to our very dear and well-loved uncle the Duc d'Orleans as for those that he has rendered us for several years in the composition of words for music which is sung both in our chapel and our chamber."15

In spite of the king's support Perrin needed financial backing, and he received it from two rogues, the Marquis de Sourdeac (Alex-

15 Lettres patentes du roi, June 28, 1669, quoted in G. A. Crapelet, Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Quinault, suivie de pieces relatives i l'etablissement de l'opera (Paris, 1824), pp. 42-45. See also Noinville et al., Histoire du theatre, pp. 77-81; Jean-Nicolas du Tralage, Notes et documents sur l'histoire des theatres de Paris au XVlle siecle (Paris, 1880), pp. 71-72; Gabriel Fictor [Auguste Jal], Dictionnaire thedtral (Paris, 1824), p. 959; Parfaict, "Histoire," BN, MS fr 12355, fols. 6-8.

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andre de Rieux) and Laurens Bersac de Champeron.16 Sourdeac, who was an amateur machinist,17 offered to support Perrin in return for a share in the profits of the Academie. Champeron contributed funds and acted as business manager. Cambert was jockeyed out of a real partnership, but he continued his duties as Perrin's composer. After some searching for a theater Sourdeac and Champeron hired Henri Guichard, intendant of buildings and gardens for the Duc d'Orleans, to build a theater on the site of a tennis court on the Rue Mazarine facing the Rue Guenegaud. On March 3, 1671, the theater opened with the first of a long series of performances of Pomone, described as an "opera ou representation en musique," by Perrin and Cambert.18 Varying little from the musical pastorales of the period, Pomone, nonetheless, was an effort to adapt the music of the recitatives to the meter of French verse.19 The short airs closely resembled those of the ballet de cour, and, compared to the harmonic usage of the Italians, Cambert's musical style was simple and conservative.

Pomone was an enormous success: crowds, including nobles of the court, flocked to the performances, which continued for eight months. Public enthusiasm was so great that the police in May issued an ordinance aimed at restraining the crowds.20 Although Pomone was financially successful, Perrin, Cambert, and the musicians failed to profit from it. Champeron and Sourdeac pocketed the profits and allowed Perrin for the second time to be imprisoned for indebtedness. In an effort to strike back at his two dishonest partners and to recoup some of his losses, Perrin sold an interest in the Academie in Novem- ber, 1671, to Henri Guichard and Jean Granouillet de la Sabliere, intendant of music for the Duc d'Orleans. Champeron and Sourdeac

16 Sourdeac was known for his eccentric and licentious behavior; his shady past included piracy during the Fronde, possible assassinations, and forgery. His cohort, Champeron, had a prison record for various offenses including tax fraud. See Prunieres, "Lully," Musical Quarterly, XI, 533-36.

17 A person who could design and operate theatrical machinery was essential to the production of many Italian and French operas and dramas in the seventeenth century. The machines made possible the miraculous descent of gods and goddesses from the heavens and the realistic representation of storms and battles. Such Italian machinists as Giacomo Torelli and Carlo Vigarani, masters of this unique craft, were frequently brought to France to assist in theatrical and operatic productions. The wealthy French nobleman Alexandre de Rieux installed machinery and a stage in his home on the Rue Garanciere and was thus able to serve as Perrin's machinist.

18 Arthur Michel de Boislisle, Les Debuts de l'opera francais a Paris (Paris, 1875), pp. 6-10.

19 The music of the Prologue and Act 1 is all that remains from Pomone. The first edition of the musical score may be found in BN Res., Vm2-l, Robert Cambert, Pomone, pastorale mise en musique (Paris, 1671).

20The order was issued by Achilles du Harlay, Conseiller du Roi en ses conseils and Procureur general du Parlement, on May 23. See Boislisle, Debuts, p. 16.

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claimed that Perrin's action was illegal. No one was sure, however, who was the beneficiary of the lettres patentes, who was to direct the Academie, and how the profits were to be divided. Amid this confu- sion, Cambert composed a new opera, or "pastorale heroique," on a text by Gabriel Gilbert. It was produced at the theater on the Rue Mazarine in February, 1672.21

The new composition, Les Peines et les plaisirs de l'amour, was a further step toward a national French opera. Les Peines included more elaborate recitatives than Pomone, and the prologue to the king, which had become a fixture in productions of this sort, was lengthier. Harmonic modulations were used more freely, and Cambert employed certain musical techniques to project more emphatically particular phrases or ideas in the text: the phrase-"charmed by his bravery, we come to these places in order to divert this king to peace, this victorious king"-was sung first by a four-part chorus, then as a solo, and finally in a contrapuntal trio.22 Throughout the prologue Cambert and Gilbert developed the idea that Louis' reputation and even his domain would extend one day over the entire world.

While reserving the prologue for Louis, Gilbert adroitly dedicated Les Peines to Colbert. He wrote:

An old king of Greece, being unable to pacify the fierce spirits of his subjects through his laws or to confine them to their duty, invited the most excellent musicians to come to the cities of Greece, and, through the charms of their art, made a civil and obedient people out of this coarse and savage nation. Perhaps, Monseigneur, this history, which Polybius relates, has given birth in you to the thought of establishing the Academy of the Opera, not in order to pacify the spirit of the French, but in order to preserve them in the beautiful sentiments in which they were born, and in order to achieve this beautiful science which Nature has begun so well. If the establishment of the French Academy . . . has given so much glory to Cardinal Richelieu, this

Academy of Music, whose purpose is to pacify and refine manners, will be no less glorious to its protector.23

Conceivably Colbert was impressed, for he soon took steps to free the AcadEmie from its administrative and financial difficulties.

21 Somewhat garbled accounts of these early months of the Acad6mie royale de musique can be found in Pruni&res, "Lully," Musical Quarterly, XI, 535-38; Boislisle, Ddbuts, pp. 8-13; Lionel de la Laurencie, Lully (2nd ed.; Paris, 1919), pp. 24-27; Boindin, Lettres historiques, pp. 72-76; Boscheron, "Vie de M. Quinault," BN, MS fr 24329, fols. 73-74.

22 Robert Cambert, Les Peines et les plaisirs de I'amour (Paris, 1672), pp. 10-14. The music for the Prologue and Act 1 alone are extant.

23 Reprinted in Noinville et al., Histoire du thddtre (n.p.).

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In the meantime Jean-Baptiste Lully, who had played no part in the founding of the AcadEmie and who had rejected the feasibility of a French opera, became noticeably more interested in the develop- ment of the Academie. Although his new ballet, Psych,24 which was

presented for the king in January, 1671, was greeted enthusiastically, Lully was amazed and disturbed by the success which Perrin and Cambert were having with Pomone. When Les Peines et les plaisirs elicited more enthusiasm than Pomone, Lully set aside his old conviction that opera in the French language could never succeed and settled on a determined effort to take over the.financially mismanaged Academie royale de musique. Whether Lully approached the king and Colbert on the matter first or they sought him out is uncertain. There is no question, however, that Lully had royal backing when he visited Perrin in the Conciergerie and persuaded the poet to sell him all

rights to the Academie, much to the consternation of Champeron, Sourdeac, Guichard, and Sablikre. In an effort to explain how Lully received royal support Charles Perrault later claimed that Lully, having noted the financial gains of the Academie, asked the king directly "for the privilege of creating the operas alone and getting the

profit from them."25 Perrault, who served the king as an artistic ad- viser, maintained further that Colbert opposed this move and "found no justice in dispossessing the inventors or, at any rate, the restorers of this divertissement." Colbert's objection was not sustained, however, according to Perrault: "Lully demanded this favor from the king with so much force and boldness, that the king, fearing that out of anger he might quit everything, told Colbert that he could not do without this man in his divertissements, and that it was necessary that he be granted whatever he requested."26

Perrault may have been mistaken about Colbert's initial objection to awarding the privilege to Lully. In a letter to Colbert of June, 1672, Lully wrote: "You know, Monseigneur, that I have taken no other course in this matter than the one which you have prescribed for me."27 Whatever Colbert's initial feelings were, he quickly got behind Lully. Madame de Montespan may also have interceded on

24 Psychd, in Recueil des opdras, des balets, et des plus belles pieces en musique (Amsterdam, 1690), Vol. I.

25 Charles Perrault, Mdmoires, contes et autre oeuvres, ed. Paul L. Jacob (Paris, 1882), p. 92.

26 Ibid. 27 Lully to Colbert, June 3, 1672, in "Jean-Baptiste Lully," Revue des documents

historiques; suite de pieces curieuses et ingdites, ed. Etienne Charavay (Paris, 1875), II, 112.

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Lully's behalf28 and conceivably provided Lully with the money to buy out Perrin.29 The Mercure galant's explanation of the transfer of the AcadEmie from Sourdeac and his associates to Lully was limited to a single sentence: "One must never penetrate into the secrets of kings and one must believe always that they are right."30 Louis XIV himself provided perhaps the best general explanation of the matter. In his Memoires he declared that the principal function of the ruler "is to put each particular person in the post in which he can be useful to the public. We are assuredly aware that we cannot do everything, but we must give orders so that everything will be done well, and this choice depends mainly on the choice of those whom we employ. In a great state there are always appropriate citizens for everything, and the only problem is to recognize them and put them in their places."31

On March 13, 1672, a few days after Lully had negotiated with Perrin for control of the Academie, Louis XIV issued new lettres patentes. The king referred to the lettres patentes of 1669 permitting Pierre Perrin to establish an academy of music, but he stated that since certain difficulties had prevented Perrin from being able "to support fully our purpose and to raise music to the point that we have promised, we have been persuaded that in order to make it succeed better, it would be appropriate to give the leadership to a person whose experience and capability have come to our attention."32 Louis acknowledged his familiarity with the talent of "our dear and beloved Jean-Baptiste Lully," who had proved his ability in the royal service. Lully will be permitted, therefore, "to establish a Royal Academy of Music in our good city of Paris to be composed of such a number and quality of persons whom he will advise to be worthy, and we will choose and check on the report that he will make to us in order to

perform some productions before us, when it pleases us, of pieces of music which will be composed as much in French verse as in other languages."33

In the event of Lully's death the king provided that one of the

28 Such is Pierre Cldment's opinion: Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan, trans. (London, 1895), I, 130.

29 Boindin, Lettres historiques, p. 76. 30Le Mercure galant, July-Aug. 1673, p. 343. 31 Mdmoires de Louis XIV, ecrits par lui-meme, composds pour le grand dauphin,

son fils, et adressds a ce primee, ed. J. L. M. de Gain-Montagnac (Paris, 1806), pp. 90-91. 32 The privilege may be found in the papers of the Secretariat d'etat de la maison

du roi, Archives nationales, MS 01613. Additional manuscript copies are in AN, MS 0116, fols. 94-96; Parfaict, "Histoire," BN, MS fr 12355, fols. 11-13. The letters have been printed in Crapelet, Notice, pp. 35-38, and in Noinville et al., Histoire du thdetre, pp. 82-87.

33 Papers, Stcretariat d'etat de la maison du roi, AN, MS 01613.

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composer's children would succeed to the post. In order to ensure the

solvency of the Academie, the king granted Lully permission to pro- duce for the public the same pieces which he presented for the king. Lully was instructed to set his own prices and to charge admission to

persons of title and officers of the royal household. The lettres patentes prohibited all persons from "singing any piece entirely in music, either in French verse or other languages, without the permission in

writing of the said Sieur Lully, under penalty of 10,000 livres fine and confiscation of theaters, machines, decorations, costumes, and other items."34

Lully's accession to power evoked criticism from Sourdeac and

Champeron and their sympathizers in Paris. Indeed, one suspects that a legal crisis was in the making, since Colbert, acting with unusual

dispatch, sent a letter on March 24 to Achille de Harlay, procureur g6neral of the Parlement, urging that the lettres patentes be registered at once. Colbert told Harlay that Lully had informed the king about the complaints of Sourdeac, Champeron, Sabliere, and Guichard, and about their efforts to prevent the registration of Lully's privilege. Colbert assured Harlay that Sourdeac and Champeron had not made a proper legal contract with Perrin and, therefore, had no right to demand Perrin's privilege. Moreover, all claims were annulled by the king's recent action according to Colbert. The king was persuaded that if Lully managed the Academie, "His Majesty and the public will be able to have the benefit of it," and he "has ordered me to inform you that he wants this matter settled as soon as possible and that you give him favorable conclusions as far as justice is able to permit you."35

A few days later the king sent a letter to Nicolas de la Reynie, Lieutenant of Police, ordering him to close the theater on the Rue Mazarine on April 1 "in order to put a stop to performances of the said opera which have continued to be given."36 On April 14 Louis issued an arret reaffirming Lully's privilege, and on the twenty-fourth Colbert sent another letter to Harlay stating that "His Majesty wishes that you give to the said Lully all the assistance and protection which

belongs to the authority of your post."37 Colbert added that Louis believed that there was no room for doubt that Lully "will handle

34 Noinville et al., Histoire du theatre, pp. 82-87. 35Colbert to Harlay, Versailles, Mar. 24, 1672, BN, MS fr 17413, fol. 226. See also

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Fortifications, sciences, lettres, beaux-arts, batiments, Vol. V of Lettres, instructions et memoires, ed. Clement (Paris, 1868), 322.

36 Noinville et al., Histoire du thddtre, p. 87. 37 Colbert to Harlay, April 24, 1672, in Colbert, Fortifications, V, 323.

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these works better than all those who have worked there until now." Royal ordinances consistent with Lully's privilege were also issued in

April. They limited to six the number of musicians that Moliere's players, who performed in the Palais-Royal, were permitted to use.38

In spite of the king's firmness in granting Lully full control of the AcadEmie, Sourdeac and Champeron sent a formal petition to the Parlement of Paris on May 30 protesting Lully's privilege. They reminded the Parlement that since 1669 they had labored at great risk and expense to make the Academie a success. Accusing Lully of

greedily seeking to capitalize on their efforts and to defraud them of their profits, SourdEac and Champeron argued that Lully won the

king's support by spreading the false rumor that the Academie was going to fail unless it was handed over to him. They appealed to the Parlement not to register Lully's patente.39 Alarmed by their boldness Lully wrote to Colbert charging his opponents with chicanery and falsehood. He questioned the legality of their deal with Perrin and denied that he had duped the king. He reminded Colbert that he had followed the line of action suggested to him by the finance minister himself. Sourdeac and Champeron had not submitted themselves to Colbert's judgment, Lully charged, because they knew that he would not tolerate the deception which they employed on the Parlement. Lully added that he was scarcely able to fight calumny and work on the king's operas at the same time.40

Lully's fears about the petition of Sourdeac and Champeron were unfounded. He was probably unaware of Colbert's letters to the

procureur genEral which clearly indicated the resolve of the king and his minister to support him. The Parlement recognized the monarch's determination and was not prepared to make an issue of the matter.

Consequently, on June 27, 1672, the lettres patentes were registered by an arret of the Parlement. The arret recognized Lully's exclusive rights to the Academie and ordered Sourdeac and Champeron to indemnify Perrin, Cambert, and the singers of the opera. Soon after- ward Cambert went to London in the service of Charles II, and Perrin died three years later. Lully, meanwhile, opened a theater on the Rue Vaugirard in the fall of 1672 and signed a contract with the machinist Carlo Vigarani, who invested 10,000 livres in the enterprise. While they prepared their first production the king issued another

privilege reconfirming Lully's position. The privilege stated that the

38 Ordonnances of April 14 and 30, 1672, in Noinville et al., Histoire du thddtre,

p. 106. 39 Revue des documents ..., II, 110-11. 40 Lully to Colbert, June 3, 1672. Ibid., II, 112.

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music which Lully had already composed, the pieces which he offered daily "by our orders," and the operas which "he will be obliged to

compose in the future" for the Academie, are of "such a quality that the least change or omission would cause them to lose their natural grace."41 Since Lully alone creates and produces this music, Louis continued, he alone should reap the profits from any public distribution or printing of his works. Louis ordered, therefore, that no copies of his music should be made without the composer's consent and that Lully should determine the size, character, plates, figures, and designs of such editions. Violations of the order would result in a fine of 10,000 livres.

Enjoying the king's confidence and possessing probably more

personal power than any composer before him, Lully was determined to make the Academie royale de musique a success. He rushed the

composition of his first piece, however, with the result that it was little more than a pastiche of excerpts from his earlier ballets with a desul- tory text by Philippe Quinault, Jean-Baptiste Moliere, and Isaac de Benserade. Nonetheless, Les Fetes de l'amour et de Bacchus (presented on November 15, 1672) appealed to the audience because of its colorful scenery, its celebration of idyllic love, and its animated dances.42 By inserting a scene contrasting the florid character of the Italian aria and the simple, unembellished style of the French air, Lully cleverly suggested the king's decision to champion a national musical style. He also delighted his patron by composing passages praising Louis as a

military hero. (Six months prior to the performance Louis had watched his troops cross the Rhine in his effort to conquer the Dutch.)

Despite the king's satisfaction with Lully's first production, the success which the Academie royale de musique would enjoy during the reign of Louis XIV was more clearly indicated by the reception which greeted the Florentine's first major opera, Cadmus et Hermione. The king was present for the opening performance of Cadmus on

April 27, 1673. The warm response to the opera assured Lully's success as head of the Academie.43 The Gazette de France reported that Louis left the initial performance "extraordinarily pleased with this

41 Privilege du roi, Versailles, Sept. 20, 1672, in Recueil des opera ..., I, 66. For extracts of this document, see Crapelet, Notice, pp. 49-50. See also Noinville et al., His- toire du theatre, p. 88.

42 In addition to its availability in Theddtre de Quinault (nouv. ed.; Paris, 1778), IV, 9-50, the text of Les Fetes may be found in BN, MS fr 24352, fols. 121-28. The musical score was printed in 1717 by Ballard and is available in the BN.

43 Cadmus was performed throughout the summer of 1673 and in July 1674 a special performance was given in the park at Versailles with the assistance of the courtiers. Subsequent revivals were offered at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in June 1678 and

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superb spectacle,"44 and in December, 1673, Marie de Sevigne wrote: "The king said the other day that if he were in Paris when the opera was being played, he would go every day. This word will be worth 100,000 francs to Baptiste."45 The success of Cadmus also guaranteed the position of Lully's librettist, Philippe Quinault. Charles Perrault wrote that the king "would accept no other author than Monsieur Quinault."46

Cadmus was a major step toward a national opera. The subject was taken from Ovid, but Quinault and Lully kept only the central

part of the fable. They added a love intrigue and used every oppor- tunity afforded by the text to insert ballets and spectacle scenes in con-

formity with French taste. Unlike both Italian opera and French ballet, however, this opera emphasized drama. The drama no longer served as the insignificant setting for vocal acrobatics as it did in Italian opera. Quinault's scenes were logically connected, and even the colorful divertissements were dramatically justified and integrated into the plot. Musically Lully's melodic ideas were derived from Cambert more than from the Italian composers of the seventeenth century. His most original invention was a recitative which carefully followed the meter and the meaning of Quinault's verse and carried the drama along its course. Lully varied his tempo and his harmony to coincide with the expressions of the text. Moreover, Lully seldom used the vocal ornaments employed with abandon by the Italians. Embellishments were inserted only when the text seemed to call for them. Even the orchestral tone-painting and grandiose fanfares em-

ployed in Cadmus were justified by the drama. Finally, Lully used his harmony discreetly and reservedly, again with the text in mind. He seldom strove for striking effects unless the drama warranted it.47

Of course, emphasis on dramatic clarity conformed to the classical

at Paris in October 1679, December 1690, September 1703, and August 1711. It was also performed in Amsterdam in 1687. See Arthur Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, 1597- 1940 (2nd ed. rev.; Geneva, 1955), pp. 51-52.

44 Quoted in Cadmus et Hermione, Vol. I of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Oeuvres com- pletes: Les Operas, ed. Henry Prunieres (Paris, 1930), preface.

45 Letter to Madame de Grignan, Paris, Dec. 1, 1673, in Marie de Sevignd, Lettres de sa famille et de ses amis (Paris, 1820), III, 157.

46 Charles Perrault, Characters Historical and Panegyrical of the Greatest Men That Have Appeared in France during the Last Century, trans. F. Ozell (London, 1704), I, 186. In 1672 Quinault's pension was raised from 800 to 1200 livres a year, and in 1674 it was 1500. Few artistic or literary figures were paid more. See Colbert, Fortifications, V, 466-98.

47A very good discussion of Lully's style in Cadmus, which has contributed to and reinforced my own findings, has been written by Henry Prunieres in the preface to Vol. I of his edition of Lully's works.

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rules of French theater, but accentuating the drama also had political significance, because the place of honor in Cadmus, and in Lully's later operas, was given to the prologue. The elaborate prologue to Cadmus not only eulogized the king but allegorically represented Louis' campaign against the Dutch. The prologue depicted the glorious victory of the Sun over the allegorical figure of Envy and her multi-headed, flame-spitting serpent representing the Dutch. The Sun, whose victory was hailed by a cheering throng of shepherds, ex- plained that his conquest was undertaken in order to bring peace to the world rather than as a vain exhibition of power. Thus, the prologue to Cadmus presented a flattering if distorted rationale for Louis' war against the Dutch and constituted a musical-dramatic report to the French people of the latest glories of the royal absolutism. It was thinly veiled allegorical propaganda.

Jean-Baptiste Lully not only became a rich man as a result of his

enterprise, but he held almost absolute authority over all musical activities in France. Moreover, he influenced the king to augment his (Lully's) hold over music from time to time. With Perrault's help he

persuaded Colbert and the king to transfer the Academie to Moliere's theater in the Palais-Royal. Moliere's players, who took over Lully's old theater on the Rue Vaugirard, were also directed to employ no more than two singers and six violinists for their productions. The king's ordonnance stated that the previous number of six singers and twelve instrumentalists allotted to the players constituted "a consider- able detriment to the execution of the theatrical works of S. Baptiste Lully, Superintendent of the Chamber Music of His Majesty, from which the public already has derived much satisfaction."48

Lully's success was, thus, total. Enjoying the full support of Louis and Colbert he brought the centralization of music in France to com-

pletion. He subsequently forged a music drama that was not only intrinsically French but which served the king's interests and was useful in portraying dramatically the policies of the royal absolutism. Both court and public were treated to the spectacle of sumptuous music-dramas which contributed to Louis XIV's image of power and grandeur.

48 Ordonnance du roi, April 22, 1673, AN, MS 0117, fol. 72. See also AN, MS 01618, piece 1. Accounts of the activities of the comedians can be found in Antoine de Leris, Dictionnaire portatif des thedtres contenant l'origine des differens theatres de Paris (Paris, 1754), pp. xix-xxiv; Pierre-Francois Godart de Beauchamps, Recherches sur les theatres de France, depuis l'annee onze cens soixantes un jusques a present (Paris, 1735), pp. 94-100; Donald Jay Grout, "The Music of the Italian Theatre at Paris, 1682-97," Papers of the American Musicological Society, ed. Gustave Reese (printed by the Society, 1946), pp. 160-62.

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