Amazing pieces of classical music - 10

Ever wondered what the world of King Louis XIV sounded like? Here is the march from the suite 'Les Musiciens Du Roi': V. Marche (Un Poco Maestoso) composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully in an arrangement for orchestra by Fritz Koschinsky and performed by the Prague Chamber Orchestra in 1961. In 1653 the Italian dancer Lulli danced with Louis XIV in his first court ballet 'Ballet de la nuit' (the role of the Rising Sun would earn the monarch his famous nickname The Sun King). After Cardinal Mazarin's death in 1661, the king founded the 'Académie royale de danse' and began Lully's close friendship and collaboration with Molière. Lully gradually transformed French court music, making it less predictable and more powerful, and thereby became the most ardent defender of the French style in music and the founder of French opera. The king retired from dancing in 1669, and two years later, due to the great popularity of the opera genre, the 'Académie d'operas' was opened. In 1673, this royal theater also came under Lully's management, and he wrote almost one complete opera every year until his death in 1687

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Thinkerbell · 41-45, F

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val70 · 51-55

@Thinkerbell Prucell's incidental music "The Gordian Knot Untied" Z. 597 (nine movements), first movement, or Overture to the Suite (Adagio, Allegro, Adagio) in an orchestral arrangement by Gustav Holst and performed by the Prague Chamber Orchestra in 1961. Despite Prucell's preoccupation with composing religious music, he maintained a lifelong interest in the theater. He is believed to have written most of his incidental music in his final years (1690-1695), but it also provided the music for more than forty plays. Funny, as you might know, with the music of Lully and the rise of comic operas in that period, the inclusion of this music especially in the BBC television series "Civilization" reinvigorated a deep understanding of European culture, specifically of the so-called 'Restoration drama', with the semi-operas of John Dryden and William Congreve at the forefront

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