Redefining perfection: The Lullian aesthetic and its eighteenth -century development.

Title

Identifier

AAI3144104

identifier

3144104

Creator

Hosford, Desmond.

Contributor

Adviser: Ora Frishberg Saloman

Date

2004

Language

English

Publisher

City University of New York.

Subject

Music | Literature, Modern | Theater

Abstract

The tragedies en musique of Jean-Baptiste de Lully (1632--1687) form the foundation of the French operatic tradition. Lully's aesthetic defined serious French opera throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and even influenced nineteenth-century opera in France. This study examines the relative stylistic features of the works of Lully and his successors as an evolution rather than as an erosion of the Lullian aesthetic. Such an approach provides new insight into some of the goals of composers in eighteenth-century France who were involved in the expression of a style that was far from extinct.;The Lullian aesthetic finds its roots primarily in the literary and declamatory procedures of French tragic theater rather than in any musical precursor. Studying key French tragic texts provides a foundation for exploring the poetic style of Philippe Quinault (1635--1688), who wrote the livrets for all but one of Lully's tragedies en musique. Although Lully had perfected the seventeenth-century tragedie en musique, his aesthetic continued to evolve after his death. Following its genesis and first glory during the seventeenth century, the Lulhan aesthetic experienced a time of uncertainty and experimentation during the early and mid-eighteenth century when composers, including Andre Campra, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and Jean-Philippe Rameau, introduced changes, some of them highly contested, into Lullian procedures. The increased emphasis on music during this period shifted the balance that Lully had established between text and music and resulted in a momentary but significant destabilization of his aesthetic. The ultimate eighteenth-century expression of the Lullian aesthetic culminated in the late 1770s and 1780s with the works of Christoph Willibald von Gluck, particularly his Armide, which successfully modernized Lullian procedures.;Eighteenth-century revivals of Lully's works all featured alterations that resulted from changing tastes, and these modifications influenced how his aesthetic was perceived. Francois Francoeur's arrangements, including Persee, Atys, and Armide, are among the noteworthy revivals.;Considered sacrosanct until the 1760s, Quinault's livrets, were eventually reset, their texts altered by other poets including Nicolas-Rene Joliveau and Jean-Francois Marmontel. New settings of Quinault's livrets by Jean Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville, Gluck, and Niccolo Piccinni, reflected a demystification of the Lullian aesthetic that paralleled a demystification of the monarchy to which that aesthetic was so closely tied. From its inception, the Lullian aesthetic played a political role through its association with the monarchy and the glorification of France. The influence of Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette on serious French opera are among the keys to understanding the style's evolving nature.;The works of Lully and his successors mirror important aesthetic and societal developments in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France. Addressing these works chronologically and contextualizing them within an understanding of serious opera based upon Lully's procedures reveals some of the salient aesthetic, literary, social, and musical changes in France during this period. Constantly referring back to the masterpieces of Lully and Quinault and the cultural patrimony that fostered them, always recontextualizing them and attempting to re-situate them against new aesthetic backgrounds, provides a new understanding of the evolving French perception of Lully's invention.

Type

dissertation

Source

PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx

degree

Ph.D.

Item