Te Deum (Lully)
The Te Deum (LWV 55) from 1677 is the Italian-French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully's greatest work with a Latin text, written to glorify the reign of Louis XIV , and first performed in Fontainebleau on September 9th of the year for the baptism of Louis Lully.
The Te Deum occupies a special position among Lully's twelve grands motets : It stands in the middle between the two groups of an early and a late phase and is separated from them by a pause in the field of church music lasting several years. It was personally significant for Lully that the king took over the sponsorship of his son: After the intrigue about the opera Isis and the grueling affaire Guichard , this was a visible vote of confidence. Depending on the pace set by the conductor, the performance of the piece takes 28 to 40 minutes. Some passages may be perceived as long, perhaps a reason for Philidor l'ainé , in 1704 for theCount of Toulouse , leaving only 784 of the 1233 bars. The printed version, which was most likely produced under Lully's supervision, contains unusually precise instructions for the performance. The mandatory trumpet was rather rare in church music at that time.
How trumpets and drums sound in a sacred building , Lully was able to try out on May 6, 1677 after an invitation from the secretaries advising the king in the Paris Convention of the Cölestines . Two days later Marc-Antoine Charpentier would perform a Te Deum in the same place , and as agile as he was in the exercise of his profession, he could meet the wishes of his clients. Lully, on the other hand, was stuck in his trial with Henry Guichard and his opera business. What was left to him was to teach splendor with the usual means and to play the most beautiful pieces of his operas. It was popular, so Lully used trumpets and drums for his Te Deum , with a corresponding restriction on the keys. The king liked the piece and wanted to hear it several times. Then Charpentier also used trumpets and drums in his church music.
Two years after the premiere came Lully's Te Deum in the chapel of the castle Fontainebleau again to advantage: On the occasion of the wedding of the king's niece Marie Louise d'Orléans with Charles II of Spain. Was built at the entrance of an almost to the vault reaching amphitheater for the Musique de la Chambre (chamber musician of the king) on the right and the Musique de la Chapelle (court church choir) on the left. The changes and movements of this large orchestra were, according to Mercure, gallantly perceived as magical. In the early 18th century, Lully's church music was little appreciated, with the exception of Te Deum .
King Ludwig got serious health problems in the mid-1680s. His doctor was called on November 18, 1686, when a dangerous fistula had to be surgically removed from the monarch's buttocks. Richelieu had died after such an operation. The doctor practiced in the hospital of Versailles on the king's fellow sufferers who had been brought in and was able to remove the ulcer successfully thanks to Ludwig's ability to suffer. The king's death was expected, but he recovered. For the celebrations of the king's recovery, Lully edited his Te Deum and had it sung with 150 musicians at his own expense. From Lecerf de la Viéville was described in 1705 that Lully at the performance of the motet on 8 January 1687 in the Église des Pères Feuillants met with the used for beating the clock floor his toe, which initially looked well as a small injury. However, the wound quickly became infected and infected with gangrene . Since Lully refused to have his toe amputated, he died a few months later. He was buried in Notre-Dame-des-Victoires with great sympathy. In fact, there is no evidence of conducting with long sticks in contemporary literature or illustrations - a rolled sheet of paper was used in one or both hands. It is possible that Lully had a walking stick with which he wanted to call the musicians present to their attention.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c John Hajdu Heyer (Ed.): Jean-Baptiste Lully: Jubilate Deo (Motet) / Te Deum (Motet) , Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-487-11534- 4 , pp. XXII-XXV.
- ^ John Hajdu Heyer: The sources of Lully's Te Deum (LWV 55): Implications for the Collected Works . In: Jérôme de La Gorce and Herbert Schneider (eds.): Source studies on Jean-Baptiste Lully. L'œuvre de Lully: Etudes des sources (Musicological publications; Vol. 13). Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim u. a. 1999, ISBN 3-487-11040-7 , p. 265.
- ↑ Jérôme de La Gorce: Jean-Baptiste Lully , Librairie Arthème Fayard, [Paris] 2002, p. 741 f.
- ↑ de La Gorce 2002: p. 755
- ↑ de La Gorce 2002: p. 246
- ↑ Uwe Schultz : The ruler of Versailles. Ludwig XIV and his time , Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006, p. 298 f.
- ↑ Philippe Beaussant : Lully ou Le Musicien du Soleil , Gallimard / Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, [Paris] 1992, p. 789.