LULLY – La Petite Chaconne (Extrait du ballet d’Alcidiane) – THREE CELLOS

Other Identification:
Jean-Baptiste Lully, born as Giovanni Battista Lulli in November 1632 (died in 1687) was an Italian-born French prolific composer, but also guitarist and violinist (and also a dancer!) who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France and became a French subject in 1661. He was a close friend of the playwright Molière, with whom he collaborated on numerous comédie-ballets, including L’Amour médecin, George Dandin ou le Mari confondu, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, Psyché and his best-known work, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
Lully’s music was written during the Middle Baroque period, 1650 to 1700. Typical of Baroque music is the use of the basso continuo as the driving force behind the music. Lully’s music is indeed known for its power, liveliness in its fast movements and its deep emotional character in its slower movements. Some of his most popular works are his passacailles (passacaglias) and chaconnes, which are dance movements found in many of his works such as Armide or Phaëton. The influence of Lully’s music produced a radical revolution in the style of the dances of the court itself. In the place of the slow and stately movements which had prevailed until then, he introduced lively ballets of rapid rhythm, often based on well-known dance types such as gavottes, menuets, rigaudons and sarabandes. However, he was so captivated by the French overture that he wrote four of them for the Ballet d’Alcidiane!
The development of his instrumental style can be discerned in his chaconnes. He experimented with all types of compositional devices and found new solutions that he later exploited to the full in his operas. one of which is OFFERED HERE for THREE CELLOS. It comes from the Ballet royal d’Alcidiane, Benserade, seemingly premiered on 14th February, 1658