piece, called 'Le Ballet comique de la Royne,' arranged by Baltazar de Beaujoyeaulx, with Dance Tunes, Choruses, Musical Dialogues, and Ritornelli, composed for the occasion by Beaulieu and Salmon, was acted, at the Chateau de Moutiers, in presence of Henri III, with extraordinary splendour. [ Vol. i. p. 133a.] The entire work is, fortunately, still in existence; and the Music—of which an example will be found under Orchestration—is far more likely to have suggested ideas to Lulli than the productions of his own countrymen. The first attempt to introduce Italian Music was made by Rinuccini, who visited France in the suite of Maria de' Medici in 1600; but it does not seem to have accorded with the national taste. During the reign of Louis XIII, the Ballet was more warmly patronised at Court than any other kind of musical entertainment. Cardinal Mazarin endeavoured to re-introduce the Italian Opera, during the minority of Louis XIV; but its success was very transient, and far less encouraging than that of the early attempts at French Opera. The first of these was 'Akebar, Roi de Mogol,' written and composed by the Abbé Mailly, and performed at Carpentras in 1646, in the presence of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Bichi. In 1659, Perrin wrote a Pastoral, with Music by Cambert, which was first privately performed at Issy, and afterwards, in presence of the King, at Vincennes. Louis was delighted with it; and, supported by his approval, its authors produced some other works, of which the most successful was 'Pomone,' played first in 1669 [App. p.735 "1671"] at the Hotel de Nevers, and in 1677 in the Tennis Court at the Hotel de Guénégaud. This was the first French Opera ever publicly performed in Paris. Meanwhile, Lulli was industriously engaged in the composition of Ballets, designed to meet the taste of the young King, who was passionately fond of dancing, and cared little for any kind of Music unsuited to his favourite pastime. But in March, 1672, he obtained, by Royal Patent, the entire monopoly of the 'Académie de Musique,' and then it was that he entered upon that portion of his career which exercised the strongest influence upon the subsequent progress of Dramatic Music in France. Too politic to imperil his position at Court by the introduction of unwelcome novelties, he still made Ballet Music his cheval de bataille; and, so popular were his Dance Tunes and rhythmic Choruses, that the occupants of the Parterre are said to have been constantly tempted to join in singing them. Moreover, his bold and highly cultivated taste for Instrumental Music led him to mould the Overture into a form more perfect than any with which it had been previously invested. [See Overture.] For the meagre Prelude affected by his Italian contemporaries he substituted a dignified Largo, followed by an Allegro, in the Fugato style, with a well-marked Subject, and many clever points of imitation, broadly conceived, and designed rather to please by their natural sequence than to surprise by any extraordinary display of ingenuity. Sometimes he added a third Movement, in the form of a Minuet, or other stately Dance Tune, which never failed to delight the hearer: and so successful was the general effect of the whole, that no long time elapsed before it was imitated by every Composer in Europe. Had Lulli done nothing for Art but this, posterity would still have been indebted to him for a priceless bequest: but he did far more. Inspired by the Verses of Quinault, who wrote 20 pieces for him between the years 1672 and 1686, he had genius enough to devise a style of Recitative so well adapted to the spirit of the best French Poetry, that the declamatory portions of his Operas soon became even more attractive than the scenes which depended for their success upon mere spectacular display. In order to accomplish this purpose, he availed himself of an expedient already wellknown in the Venetian School—the constant alternation of Duple and Triple Rhythm. This he used to an excess, which, while it secured the perfect rhetorical expression of the text, injured the flow of his Melody very seriously, and would be a fatal bar to the revival of his Music at the present day. But, it helped him to found the great French School; and France will ever be grateful to him for doing so. A comparison of the following extract from 'Atys' (1676) with the Scene from Cavalli's 'Giasone' given at page 503, will clearly exemplify the distinction between his style and that of the Venetian Composers:—
Lulli was the last man in the world to encourage the talent of a possible rival, or even to allow him a fair hearing. While he lived, he reigned supreme; and his successors, Colasse, Danchet, Campra, and Destouches, were quite incompetent to carry on his work. But though Art languished in France, good service was done in its cause, in our own country, by a contemporary writer, the originality of whose genius renders it necessary that we should treat of the epoch in which he flourished as a Sixth Period.
With the sole exception of Alessandro Scarlatti,
