Petits motets (chamber motets)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
The rarely heard eleven chamber motets by Lully have come down to us only in manuscripts copied out after his death. They are scored for three voices and continuo, although a few of the motets also include a brief sinfonie for violin and continuo. Why Lully wrote these works is not known for certain. It is thought that they may have been composed for a convent, particularly since most of them have only women's voices, but they could also have been performed later at the royal chapel. Having served the Sun King, Louis XIV, he is normally associated with the far more grandiose, heroic style of his choral motets and operas. This music, however, has no heroic posturing but shows an exquisitely sensitive and expressive side of the composer.
Jean-Baptiste Lully, originally Giovanni Battista Lulli, was born in Florence into a family of millers. At the age of 14, he went to France and soon distinguished himself as a talented musician and dancer. Six years later, in 1652, he entered the service of Louis XIV and, through a combination of astute political machinations and exceptional musical gifts, rose far above the normal station for a musician. In 1681, he joined the nobility and eventually became extremely wealthy. Not only was he the favorite musician of the court, but he also became the supreme arbiter of French musical taste. It was decreed that only Lully's theater could use orchestras over a specified size and that no opera could be performed in France without his permission. Although he is known to have jealously suppressed music of some of his contemporaries, his own greatness as a composer could not be denied even by his enemies. It was he who developed many important French performance practices with his highly disciplined orchestra, and it was he who created the accepted French style in opera. Both achievements affected generations of composers after him in France and throughout Europe.
Boston Baroque Performances
Petits motets (chamber motets)
November 2, 1996
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Sharon Baker, soprano
Mara Bonde, soprano
Roberta Anderson, soprano