Lully, Jean-Baptiste

Lully, Jean-Baptiste

 orig. Giovanni Battista Lulli

(born Nov. 29, 1632, Florence—died March 22, 1687, Paris, France) Italian-born French composer. He was made a ward of the court after his mother died and was sent to a noble French household at age 13 as valet. There he learned guitar, organ, violin, and dancing and came to know the composer Michel Lambert (1610–96), who introduced him to society and later became his father-in-law. Lully became a dancer and musician for the king and at age 30 was put in charge of all royal music. In the 1660s he composed the incidental music for Molière's plays as well as those of France's great tragedians. In the early 1670s he obtained the sole patent to present opera and produced the series of “lyric tragedies”—most with librettos by Philippe Quinault (1635–88)—for which he is known, including Alceste (1674), Atys (1676), and Armide (1686). The orchestra he developed was an important forerunner of the modern orchestra. A self-inflicted injury to his toe with his heavy conducting stick led to his death. His style of composition was imitated throughout Europe.