To skip to a different piece, click on the time stamp displayed next to the title:

0:06 Grand air de guerre (Jean-Baptiste de Lully, 1707)
2:49 Allemande from Suite #1 in D minor (Marin Marais, 1686)
5:05 Bourrée (J-B Lully, 1707)
7:06 Courante form Suite #1 in D minor (M Marais, 1686)
8:48 Grand air en suitte (J-B Lully, 1707)
10:03 Ouverture-Chaconne (J-B Lully, 1690)
12:02 Rondeau (J-B Lully, 1707)
13:44 Prelude pour l'amour (J-B Lully, 1681)
14:47 Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs (J-B Lully, 1670)

PROGRAM NOTES

King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, the so-called Sun-King, was often compared to the Greek god Apollo by the master artists of his generation. Louis was a connoisseur of fine paintings, architecture, music, ballet and courtly ladies. He was an extrovert, a dancer who enjoyed dressing up in finery and tall shoes. But he was also an absolute dictator and a formidable warrior who defeated the Dutch in battle and established France as an undisputed European powerhouse, culturally and militarily.

Versailles Palace was the epitome of excessive extravagance in the Age of the "Divine" Kings. In this video, I tried to capture the grandiosity at the court of the fourteenth Louis by incorporating the art and architecture from Versailles and superimposing the pompous ballet music of Jean-Baptiste de Lully. But not all the sounds of the Versailles repertoire was pompous. The music for bass viol by Marin Marais, Lully's colleague, was a more subdued, complex and austere sound reminiscent of Tobias Hume and Bach's cello suite. Even Lully had his subtle moments with the "Prelude pour l'amour" in which he stipulates a consort of soft instruments, specifically a quartet of transverse flutes (les flutes allemagne).

Below I have listed the musical excerpts and briefly described the artwork accompanying them:

1. Grand air de guerre (Jean-Baptiste de Lully)
(MIDI source: Aeolian Consort, geocities.jp)
a. Grand air de guerre, MS Philidor, 1707
b. Hall of Mirrors, Château de Versailles
c. Louis XIV portrait, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701
d. Baroque oboe, Anon. Italian, c1710
e. Versailles gate with Sun-King emblem, Dennis Jarvis
f. Salon de la guerre, Versailles, 1715
g. Salon d'Hercule, Versailles
2. Allemande from Suite #1 in D minor (Marin Marais)
(MIDI source: Sarge Gerbode, gerbode.net)
a. Allemande, MS Jean Hurel, 1686
b. Marin Marais portrait, André Bouys, 1704
c. Lady playing lute, Anon. Franco-Flemish, 17th cent.
d. Bass viola da gamba, Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, 1683
e. Gamba scroll, Tielke, 1683
f. Woman lutenist, Willem van Mieris, 1711
3. Bourrée (J-B Lully)
(MIDI source: Aeolian Consort, geocities.jp)
a. Bourrée, MS Philidor, 1707
b. Concert, Donato Creti, 1697
c. Musicians at the Medici court, Antonio Dom.Gabbiani, 1687
d. Self portrait, Peter Lely, c1648
e. Corridor to the theater, Versailles
4. Courante form Suite #1 in D minor (M Marais)
(MIDI source: Sarge Gerbode, gerbode.net)
a. Courante, MS Jean Hurel, 1686
b. Lady with gamba, Caspar Netscher, c1670
c. David Leeuw & Family (detail), Abraham van den Tempel 1671
d. Pièces de viole, Livre 1, front page, 1686
5. Grand air en suitte (J-B Lully)
(MIDI source: Aeolian Consort, geocities.jp)
a. Grand air, MS Philidor, 1707
b. Baroque oboe, Willem Beukers, Holland, c1700
c. Oboe (detail), Beukers
d. Harpsichord, Anon. Italian, 17th cent.
6. Ouverture-Chaconne (J-B Lully)
(MIDI source: Marc Lanoiselée, IMSLP.org)
a. Chaconne, MS André Danican Philidor, 1690
b. Jean-Baptiste Lully portrait, Paul Mignard, c1680
c. Apotheosis of Hercules, François Le Moine, 1731
d. Concert at the Medici court, A.D. Gabbiani, c1687
7. Rondeau (J-B Lully)
(MIDI source: Aeolian Consort, geocities.jp)
a. Rondeau, MS Philidor, 1707
b. Louis XIV as ballet dancer
c. Louis XIV as Roman warrior, 1666
d. Baroque violin, Antonio Stradivarius, 1680
e. Cipriani Potter violin, Stradivarius, 1683
f. View of Versailles, Anon. French, c1668
8. Prelude pour l'amour (J-B Lully)
(MIDI source: midiworld.com)
a. Versailles courtyard
b. Marie Mancini (XIV Louis' love interest), J.F. Voet, 1660
9. Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs (J-B Lully)
(MIDI source: Hajime Tokuno)
a. Hall of Mirrors, Versailles
b. Allegory of Louis' victory in war, Charles le Brun, c1684
c. Louis XIV bust, Bernini, 1665

Each musical selection in this video is a MIDI file that was extensively edited using software programs. No segment of this soundtrack was a live performance.

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