The Te Deum (also known as Te Deum Laudamus, Ambrosian Hymn or A Song of the Church) is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise".

The hymn remains in regular use in the Catholic Church in the Office of Readings found in the Liturgy of the Hours, and in thanksgiving to God for a special blessing such as the election of a pope, the consecration of a bishop, the canonization of a saint, a religious profession, the publication of a treaty of peace, a royal coronation, etc.It is sung either after Mass or the Divine Office or as a separate religious ceremony. The hymn also remains in use in the Anglican Communion and some Lutheran Churches in similar settings.

In the traditional Office, the ''Te Deum'' is sung at the end of Matins on all days when the Gloria is said at Mass; those days are all Sundays outside Advent, Septuagesima, Lent, and Passiontide; on all feasts (except the Triduum) and on all ferias during Eastertide. Before the 1962 reforms, neither the Gloria nor the Te Deum were said on the feast of the Holy Innocents, unless it fell on Sunday, as they were martyred before the death of Christ and therefore could not immediately attain the beatific vision.

In the Liturgy of the Hours of Paul VI, the ''Te Deum'' is sung at the end of the Office of Readings on all Sundays except those of Lent, on all solemnities, including the octaves of Easter and Christmas, and on all feasts. It is also used together with the standard canticles in Morning Prayer as prescribed in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, in Matins for Lutherans, and is retained by many other churches of the Reformed tradition. It is also used by the Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Paraklesis (Moleben) of Thanksgiving.

Origin

Authorship is traditionally ascribed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, on the occasion of the latter's baptism by the former in AD 387. It has also been ascribed to Saint Hilary, but The Catholic Forum says "it is now accredited to Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana; (4th century)".

The petitions at the end of the hymn (beginning ''Salvum fac populum tuum'') are a selection of verses from the book of Psalms, appended subsequently to the original hymn.

The hymn follows the outline of the Apostles' Creed, mixing a poetic vision of the heavenly liturgy with its declaration of faith. Calling on the name of God immediately, the hymn proceeds to name all those who praise and venerate God, from the hierarchy of heavenly creatures to those Christian faithful already in heaven to the Church spread throughout the world. The hymn then returns to its creedal formula, naming Christ and recalling his birth, suffering and death, his resurrection and glorification. At this point the hymn turns to the subjects declaiming the praise, both the universal Church and the singer in particular, asking for mercy on past sins, protection from future sin, and the hoped-for reunification with the elect.

Music

The text has been set to music by many composers, with settings by Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvořák, Britten, Kodály, and Pärt among the better known. Antonio Vivaldi also wrote a setting of the Te Deum (RV 622), but this composition is now lost. The prelude to Charpentier's setting (H.146 in Hugh Wiley Hitchcock's catalogue) is well known in Europe on account of its being used as the theme music for some broadcasts of the European Broadcasting Union, most notably the Eurovision Song Contest. Sir William Walton's ''Coronation Te Deum'' was written for the coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. Other English settings include those by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, three versions by George Frideric Handel (Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, Dettingen Te Deum and Queen's Te Deum), and that of Edward Elgar, his Op. 34. Charles Villiers Stanford also wrote three settings: ''Te Deum in B flat'', Op. 10; ''Te Deum in C'', Op. 115; and ''Te Deum in A''. Jean-Baptiste Lully wrote his own setting of Te Deum for the French Court, and eventually killed himself conducting it.

A version by Father Michael Keating is popular in some Charismatic circles. Mark Hayes wrote a setting of the text in 2005, with Latin phrases interpolated amid primarily English lyrics. British composer John Rutter has composed two settings of this hymn, one entitled ''Te Deum'' and the other ''Winchester Te Deum''. Igor Stravinsky set the first 12 lines of the text as part of ''The Flood'' in 1962. Antony Pitts was commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music to write a setting for the 2011 10th Anniversary Festival.

Latin and English text

Latin text

Translation from the Book of Common Prayer

te Dominum confitemur.

Te aeternum Patrem

omnis terra veneratur.

Tibi omnes Angeli;

tibi caeli et universae Potestates;

Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim

incessabili voce proclamant:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,

Dominus Deus Sabaoth.

Pleni sunt caeli et terra

maiestatis gloriae tuae.

Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,

Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,

Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.

Te per orbem terrarum

sancta confitetur Ecclesia,

Patrem immensae maiestatis:

Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;

Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.

Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.

Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.

Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,

non horruisti Virginis uterum.

Tu, devicto mortis aculeo,

aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.

Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.

Iudex crederis esse venturus.

Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni:

quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.

Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.

[added later, mainly from Psalm verses:]

Salvum fac populum tuum,

Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.

Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.

Per singulos dies benedicimus te;

Et laudamus Nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.

Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.

Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri.

Fiat misericordia tua,

Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.

In te, Domine, speravi:

non confundar in aeternum.

We praise thee, O God :

we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.

All the earth doth worship thee :

the Father everlasting.

To thee all Angels cry aloud :

the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.

To thee Cherubim and Seraphim :

continually do cry,

Holy, Holy, Holy :

Lord God of Sabaoth;

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty :

of thy glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee.

The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee.

The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee.

The holy Church throughout all the world :

doth acknowledge thee;

The Father : of an infinite Majesty;

Thine honourable, true : and only Son;

Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter.

Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ.

Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father.

When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man :

thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death :

thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the glory of the Father.

We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge.

We therefore pray thee, help thy servants :

whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.

Make them to be numbered with thy Saints : in glory everlasting.

[added later, mainly from Psalm verses:]

O Lord, save thy people :

and bless thine heritage.

Govern them : and lift them up for ever.

Day by day : we magnify thee;

And we worship thy Name : ever world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord : to keep us this day without sin.

O Lord, have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us :

as our trust is in thee.

O Lord, in thee have I trusted :

let me never be confounded.

''In the Book of Common Prayer, verse is written in half-lines, at which reading pauses, indicated by colons in the text.''

Examples

Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Te Deum by Jean Baptiste Lully

Te Deum by Joseph Haydn

Te Deum by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Te Deum by Hector Berlioz

Te Deum by Giuseppe Verdi

Te Deum by Anton Bruckner

Te Deum by Antonín Dvořák

Te Deum by Benjamin Britten

Te Deum by Arvo Pärt

Te Deum by Herbert Howells

Te Deum by Zoltán Kodály

References

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia entry

Category:Catholic liturgy Category:Catholic music Category:Christian hymns Category:Eastern Catholicism Category:Eastern Orthodoxy Category:Latin hymns Category:Latin religious phrases Category:Liturgy of the Hours Category:Lutheran liturgy and worship

ca:Te Deum cs:Te Deum laudamus da:Te Deum de:Te Deum es:Te Deum eo:Te Deum fr:Te Deum it:Te Deum laudamus la:Te Deum laudamus nl:Te Deum (hymne) ja:テ・デウム no:Te Deum nn:Te Deum pl:Te Deum pt:Te Deum ru:Te Deum simple:Te Deum sk:Te Deum fi:Te Deum sv:Te Deum uk:Тебе, Бога, хвалимо

Ruggero Raimondi (born 3 October 1941) is an Italian Bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures.

Life and career

Early training and career

Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II. His voice matured early into its adult timbre, and at the age of 15, he auditioned for conductor Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, who encouraged him to pursue an operatic career. He began vocal studies with Ettore Campogalliani, and was accepted at age 16 as a student at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He then continued his studies in Rome, under the guidance of Teresa Pediconi and Armando Piervenanzi.

After having won the National Competition for young opera singers in Spoleto, he made his debut in the same city in the role of Colline in ''La Bohème'' in the Festival dei Due Mondi. Subsequently an opportunity arose for him at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome when he was called upon to substitute in the role of Procida in Giuseppe Verdi's ''I Vespri Siciliani'', and he received enormous success from the public and the critics. The young singer was very shy and stiff at first, but his early directors helped him, and he was soon an accomplished opera actor.

Opera, film and television star

Raimondi's career soon extended to the major opera houses in Italy, such as La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Comunale in Florence and abroad, beginning with the Glyndebourne Festival (Don Giovanni in 1969). His La Scala debut was as Timur in ''Turandot'' in 1968, his Metropolitan Opera debut was as Silva in ''Ernani'' in 1970, and his Covent Garden debut was as Fiesco in ''Simon Boccanegra'' in 1972. In 1975, he made his Paris Opera debut as Procida, followed by the title role in ''Boris Godunov'', and his Salzburg Festival debut in 1980 as the King in ''Aida''. In 1986, he first directed a production of ''Don Giovanni'', and decided to continue his career as a director as well.

Some of his most important roles have been King Philip in Verdi's ''Don Carlos''; Fiesco; the title roles in ''Boris Godunov'' (including the Andrzej Żuławski film) and ''Attila''; Silva; Escamillo in Bizet's ''Carmen'' (including the Francesco Rosi film, 1984, with Plácido Domingo and Julia Migenes); the title role in ''Don Giovanni'' (including the Joseph Losey film, 1979); Count Almaviva in ''The Marriage of Figaro''; and Don Alfonso in ''Così fan tutte''; the title role in ''Don Quichotte'' by Massenet; and Scarpia in a recording of ''Tosca'' produced by Ardermann and later filmed live from Rome, with Plácido Domingo and Catherine Malfitano, conducted by Zubin Mehta. He also made the television film ''Six characters in search of a singer.'' In 2008 he appeared in the Mini-Series "Les Sanglot des Anges" on French TV, in which he played the role of an Italian opera singer. In July 2011 he played the role of Pagano in Verdi's ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata'' on the rooftop of the ''Duomo of Milan''. The concert was organized to celebrete the 150th Anniversary of the Italian Unity by the ''Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano'' .

Recordings

Audio recordings

Mozart: ''Don Giovanni'' | Sony | 2006

Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro'' | Decca | 2003

Mussorgsky: ''Boris Godunov'' | Erato | 1989

Puccini: ''Turandot'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1990

Rossini: ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1993

Rossini: ''Il Barbiere di Siviglia'' (w/bonus DVD) DVD | Decca | 2005

Rossini: ''Il viaggio a Reims'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1990

Rossini: ''La Cenerentola''| Decca | 2003

Tosti Recital

Rossini: ''L'italiana in Algeri'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1989

Verdi: ''Aida'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1983

Verdi: Aida | Deutsche Grammophon | 2005

Verdi: ''Attila'' | Philips | 2005

Verdi: ''Don Carlos'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1990

Verdi: ''Un ballo in maschera'' | Deutsche Grammophon | 1998

TV

2008 : ''Le Sanglot des Anges'', mini series directed by Jacques Otmezguine

2005 : ''Così fan tutte'' staged by Patrice Chéreau

2001 : ''Il turco in Italia'' with Cecilia Bartoli at Zurich Opera House

1992 : ''Tosca'': In the Settings and at the Times of Tosca, Directed by Brian Large (with Malfitano and Domingo)

1992 : ''Le nozze di Figaro'' Directed by Brian Large

1991 : ''José Carreras and Friends'': Opera Recital

1983 : ''Ernani'' Directed by Kirk Browning (with Milnes and Pavarotti)

1982 : Verdi's ''Requiem''

1981 : ''Six personnages en quête d'un chanteur'' by Maurice Béjart

1980 : ''Boris Godunov'' staged by Joseph Losey at Opéra National de Paris

Filmography

2001 : ''Tosca'' by Benoît Jacquot, with Angela Gheorghiu & Roberto Alagna

1997 : ''Les couleurs du Diable'' by Alain Jessua

1989 : ''Boris Godounov'' by Andrzej Żuławski

1984 : ''Carmen'' by Francesco Rosi, with Plácido Domingo

1983 : ''La vie est un roman'' by Alain Resnais

1982 : ''La Truite'' by Joseph Losey

1979 : ''Don Giovanni'' by Joseph Losey, with José van Dam, Kiri Te Kanawa

References

External links

Raimondi website

Profile of Raimondi dead link 01/11/10

Answers.com profile

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Italian opera singers Category:Operatic bass-baritones Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Bologna Category:Italian theatre directors

ca:Ruggero Raimondi de:Ruggero Raimondi es:Ruggero Raimondi fr:Ruggero Raimondi it:Ruggero Raimondi nl:Ruggero Raimondi pt:Ruggero Raimondi ru:Раймонди, Руджеро

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (; 12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song which influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, containing many folk song arrangements set as hymn tunes, in addition to several original compositions.

Life

Early years

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on 12 October 1872 in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Reverend Arthur Vaughan Williams (the surname Vaughan Williams is an unhyphenated double-barrelled name of Welsh origin), was vicar. Following his father's death in 1875 he was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan née Wedgwood (1843–1937), the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a Wedgwood family home in the Surrey Hills. He was also related to the Darwins, Charles Darwin being a great-uncle. Though born into the privileged intellectual upper middle class, Vaughan Williams never took it for granted and worked all his life for the democratic and egalitarian ideals in which he believed.

As a student he had studied piano, "which I never could play, and the violin, which was my musical salvation." After Charterhouse School he attended the Royal College of Music (RCM) under Charles Villiers Stanford. He read history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his friends and contemporaries included the philosophers G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell. He then returned to the RCM and studied composition with Hubert Parry, who became a friend. One of his fellow pupils at the RCM was Leopold Stokowski and during 1896 they both studied organ under Sir Walter Parratt. Stokowski later went on to perform six of Vaughan Williams's symphonies for American audiences, making the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in 1949 with the New York Philharmonic, and giving the U.S. premiere of the Ninth Symphony in Carnegie Hall in 1958.

Another friendship made at the RCM, crucial to Vaughan Williams's development as a composer, was with fellow-student Gustav Holst whom he first met in 1895. From that time onwards they spent several 'field days' reading through and offering constructive criticism on each other's works in progress.

Vaughan Williams's composition developed slowly and it was not until he was 30 that the song "Linden Lea" became his first publication. He mixed composition with conducting, lecturing and editing other music, notably that of Henry Purcell and the English Hymnal. He had already taken lessons with Max Bruch in Berlin in 1897 and in 1907–1908 took a big step forward in his orchestral style when he studied for three months in Paris with Maurice Ravel.

In 1904, Vaughan Williams discovered English folk songs and carols, which were fast becoming extinct owing to the oral tradition through which they existed being undermined by the increase of literacy and printed music in rural areas. He travelled the countryside, transcribing and preserving many himself. Later he incorporated some songs and melodies into his own music, being fascinated by the beauty of the music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary people. His efforts did much to raise appreciation of traditional English folk song and melody. Later in his life he served as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), which, in recognition of his early and important work in this field, named its Vaughan Williams Memorial Library after him. During this time he strengthened his links to prominent writers on folk music, including the Reverend George B. Chambers.

In 1905, Vaughan Williams conducted the first concert of the newly founded Leith Hill Music Festival at Dorking which he was to conduct until 1953, when he passed the baton to his successor, William Cole. In 1909, he composed incidental music for the Cambridge Greek Play, a stage production at Cambridge University of Aristophanes' ''The Wasps''. The next year, he had his first big public successes conducting the premieres of the ''Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis'' (at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral) and his choral symphony ''A Sea Symphony'' (Symphony No. 1). He enjoyed a still greater success with ''A London Symphony'' (Symphony No. 2) in 1914, conducted by Geoffrey Toye.

Two World Wars

Vaughan Williams was 41 when World War I began. Though he could have avoided war service entirely, or tried for a commission, he chose to enlist as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. After a gruelling time as a stretcher bearer in France and Salonika, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 24 December 1917. On one occasion, though too ill to stand, he continued to direct his battery while lying on the ground. Prolonged exposure to gunfire began a process of hearing loss which eventually caused severe deafness in old age. In 1918, he was appointed Director of Music, First Army, and this helped him adjust back into musical life.

After the war, he adopted for a while a somewhat mystical style in ''A Pastoral Symphony'' (Symphony No. 3), which draws on his experiences as an ambulance volunteer in that war; and ''Flos Campi'', a work for solo viola, small orchestra, and wordless chorus. From 1924 a new phase in his music began, characterised by lively cross-rhythms and clashing harmonies. Key works from this period are ''Toccata marziale'', the ballet ''Old King Cole'', the Piano Concerto, the oratorio ''Sancta Civitas'' (his favourite of his choral works) and the ballet ''Job: A Masque for Dancing'', which is drawn not from the Bible but from William Blake's ''Illustrations of the Book of Job''. He also composed a ''Te Deum'' in G for the enthronement of Cosmo Gordon Lang as Archbishop of Canterbury. This period in his music culminated in the Symphony No. 4 in F minor, first played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1935. This symphony contrasts dramatically with the "pastoral" orchestral works with which he is associated; indeed, its almost unrelieved tension, drama, and dissonance have startled listeners since it was premiered. Acknowledging that the Fourth Symphony was different, the composer said, "I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant." Two years later, Vaughan Williams made a historic recording of the work with the same orchestra for HMV (His Master's Voice), his only commercial recording. During this period, he lectured in America and England, and conducted The Bach Choir. He was President of the City of Bath Bach Choir between 1946 and 1959. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in the King's Birthday Honours of 1935, having previously declined a knighthood. He also gave private lessons in London to students including Irish composer Ina Boyle.

Vaughan Williams was an intimate life long friend of the famous British pianist Harriet Cohen. His letters to her reveal a flirtatious relationship, regularly reminding her of the thousands of kisses that she owed him. Before Cohen's first American tour in 1931 he wrote "I fear the Americans will love you so much that they won't let you come back." He was a regular visitor to her home and often attended parties there. Cohen premiered Vaughan Williams's "Hymn Tune Prelude" in 1930, which he dedicated to her. She later introduced the piece throughout Europe during her concert tours. In 1933 she premiered his Piano Concerto in C major, a work which was once again dedicated to her. Cohen was given the exclusive right to play the piece for a period of time. Cohen played and promoted Vaughan Williams's work throughout Europe, the USSR, and the United States.

His music now entered a mature lyrical phase, as in the ''Five Tudor Portraits''; the ''Serenade to Music'' (a setting of a scene from act five of ''The Merchant of Venice'', for orchestra and sixteen vocal soloists and composed as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood); and the Symphony No. 5 in D, which he conducted at the Proms in 1943. As he was now 70, many people considered it a swan song, but he renewed himself again and entered yet another period of exploratory harmony and instrumentation. His very successful Symphony No. 6 of 1946 received a hundred performances in the first year. It surprised both admirers and critics, many of whom suggested that this symphony (especially its last movement) was a grim vision of the aftermath of an atomic war: typically, Vaughan Williams himself refused to recognise any programme behind this work.

Later work

Before his death in 1958, he completed three more symphonies. His Seventh, ''Sinfonia Antartica'', which was based on his 1948 film score for ''Scott of the Antarctic'', exhibits his renewed interest in instrumentation and sonority. The Eighth Symphony, first performed in 1956, was followed by the much weightier Symphony No. 9 in E minor of 1956–57. This last symphony was initially given a lukewarm reception after its first performance in May 1958, just three months before his death. But this dark and enigmatic work is now considered by many to be a fitting conclusion to his sequence of symphonic works.

He also completed a range of instrumental and choral works, including a Tuba Concerto, ''An Oxford Elegy'' on texts of Matthew Arnold, and the Christmas cantata ''Hodie''. He also wrote an arrangement of The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune for the Coronation Service of Queen Elizabeth II. At his death he left an unfinished Cello Concerto, an opera ''Thomas the Rhymer'' and music for a Christmas play, ''The First Nowell'', which was completed by his amanuensis Roy Douglas (b. 1907).

Despite his substantial involvement in church music, and the religious subject-matter of many of his works, he was described by his second wife as "an atheist ... [who] later drifted into a cheerful agnosticism." It is noteworthy that in his opera ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' he changed the name of the hero from John Bunyan's ''Christian'' to ''Pilgrim''. He also set Bunyan's hymn ''Who would true valour see'' to music using the traditional Sussex melody "Monk's Gate". For many church-goers, his most familiar composition may be the hymn tune ''Sine nomine'' written for the hymn "For All the Saints" by William Walsham How. The tune he composed for the mediaeval hymn "Come Down, O Love Divine" (''Discendi, Amor santo'' by Bianco of Siena, ca.1434) is entitled "Down Ampney" in honour of his birthplace.

He also worked as a tutor for Birkbeck College.

In the 1950s, the composer supervised recordings of all but his Ninth Symphony by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca. At the end of the sessions for the mysterious Sixth Symphony, Vaughan Williams gave a short speech, thanking Boult and the orchestra for their performance, "most heartily," and Decca later included this on the LP. He was to supervise the first recording of the Ninth Symphony (for Everest Records) with Boult; his death on 26 August 1958 the night before the recording sessions were to begin provoked Boult to announce to the musicians that their performance would be a memorial to the composer. These recordings, including the speeches by the composer and Boult, have all been reissued by Decca on CD.

Vaughan Williams is a central figure in British music because of his long career as teacher, lecturer and friend to so many younger composers and conductors. His writings on music remain thought-provoking, particularly his oft-repeated call for all persons to make their own music, however simple, as long as it is truly their own. Vaughan Williams was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.

Marriages

He was married twice. His first marriage was to Adeline Fisher (daughter of the historian Herbert William Fisher) in 1896. Adeline was related to Ruth Fisher de Ropp, who was the mother of Robert S de Ropp. Robert's father, a semi-destitute European nobleman, was unable to pay for his son's post-secondary education. Consequently, Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams paid for Robert’s education at the Royal College of Science, in South Kensington, where he eventually specialised in biology and earned a PhD. De Ropp went on to be a successful research scientist and well-known author of books on human potentials. Adeline Fisher Vaughan Williams died in 1951 after many years of suffering from crippling arthritis.

Vaughan Williams had an affair with the married poet Ursula Wood beginning in 1938. After Wood's husband died in 1942, Wood became Ralph's literary advisor and personal assistant and moved into his Surrey home, apparently with the tacit approval of Adeline, for whom Wood served as a caretaker until Adeline's death in 1951. Wood wrote the libretto to his choral work ''The Sons of Light'', and contributing to that of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' and ''Hodie''. Wood and Vaughan Williams married in 1953 and moved to London and occupied a house at 10 Hanover Terrace, Regents Park until the composer's death five years later. In 1964 Wood published RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams. She served as honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society until her death in 2007.

Style

Vaughan Williams's music has often been said to be characteristically English, in the same way as that of Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius, George Butterworth and William Walton. In ''Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination'', Peter Ackroyd writes, "If that Englishness in music can be encapsulated in words at all, those words would probably be: ostensibly familiar and commonplace, yet deep and mystical as well as lyrical, melodic, melancholic, and nostalgic yet timeless." Ackroyd quotes music critic John Alexander Fuller Maitland, whose distinctions included editing the second edition of the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' in the years just before 1911, as having observed that in Vaughan Williams's style "one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new."

His style expresses a deep regard for and fascination with folk tunes, the variations upon which can convey the listener from the down-to-earth (which he always tried to remain in his daily life) to the ethereal. Simultaneously the music shows patriotism toward England in the subtlest form, engendered by a feeling for ancient landscapes and a person's small yet not entirely insignificant place within them. His earlier works sometimes show the influence of Maurice Ravel, his teacher for three months in Paris in 1908. Ravel described Vaughan Williams as the only one of his pupils who did not write music like Ravel.

Works

Operas

''Hugh the Drover or Love in the Stocks'' (1910–20). Romantic ballad opera. Libretto: Harold Child

''Sir John in Love'' (1924–28), from which comes an arrangement by Ralph Greaves of ''Fantasia on "Greensleeves"''

''The Poisoned Kiss'' (1927–29; revisions 1936–37 and 1956–57). Libretto: Evelyn Sharp (later amended by Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams)

''Riders to the Sea'' (1925–32), from the play by John Millington Synge

''The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1909–51), based on John Bunyan's allegory

:*''The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains'' (1921). Libretto: Ralph Vaughan Williams (from John Bunyan) (Later incorporated, save for the final section, into ''The Pilgrim's Progress'')

Incidental music

''The Wasps'' (1909; to Aristophanes's play ''The Wasps''; best known as an orchestral suite)

''The Bacchae'' (1911; to Euripides's tragedy)

''The Death of Tintagiles'' (1913; to Maurice Maeterlinck's 1894 play)

Ballets

''Old King Cole'' (1923)

''On Christmas Night'' (1926)

''Job: A Masque for Dancing'' (1930)

''The Running Set'' (1933)

''The Bridal Day'' (1938–39)

Orchestral

Symphonies

*''A Sea Symphony'' (Symphony No. 1), a choral symphony on texts by Whitman (1903–1909)

*''A London Symphony'' (Symphony No. 2) (1913)

*''A Pastoral Symphony'' (Symphony No. 3) (1921)

*Symphony No. 4 in F minor (1931–34)

*Symphony No. 5 in D major (1938–43)

*Symphony No. 6 in E minor (1944–47, rev. 1950)

*''Sinfonia antartica'' (Symphony No. 7) (1949–52) (partly based on his music for the film ''Scott of the Antarctic'')

*Symphony No. 8 in D minor (1953–55)

*Symphony No. 9 in E minor (1956–57)

Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue (1900)

''In the Fen Country'', for orchestra (1904)

Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 (1906, rev. 1914))

''The Wasps'', an Aristophanic suite (1909; see Incidental music above)

''Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis'' (1910, rev. 1913 and 1919)

March: Sea Songs (1923)

Prelude and Fugue in C minor (1930)

The Running Set (1933)

''Fantasia on "Greensleeves"'' (1934)

Two Hymn Tune Preludes (1936)

Partita for Strings (1938)

''Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus'' (1939)

Household Music (1940)

Concerto Grosso, for three parts of strings requiring different levels of technical skill (1950)

Prelude on an Old Carol Tune (1952)

''Flourish for Glorious John'' (1957)

Concerti

Violin

*''The Lark Ascending'' for violin and orchestra (1914)

*''Concerto Accademico'' for violin and orchestra (1924–25)

Viola

*''Flos Campi'' for viola, wordless chorus and small orchestra (1925)

*Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra (1934)

*Romance for viola and piano (1925–1934 circa)

Piano

* Piano Concerto in C major (1926–31)

*Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (c. 1946; a reworking of Piano Concerto in C)

Oboe Concerto in A minor, for oboe and strings (1944)

''Fantasia (quasi variazione) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune'' for piano, chorus, and orchestra (1949)

Romance in D-flat major for harmonica and orchestra (1951) (written for Larry Adler)

Tuba Concerto in F minor (1954)

Choral

''A Cambridge Mass'', mass for SATB, double chorus & orchestra (1899); Doctoral exercise, first performed 3 March 2011.,,,

''Toward the Unknown Region'', song for chorus and orchestra, setting of Walt Whitman (1906)

''Five Mystical Songs'' for baritone, chorus and orchestra, settings of George Herbert (1911)

''Fantasia on Christmas Carols'' for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1912); arranged also for reduced orchestra of organ, strings, percussion)

Mass in G minor for unaccompanied choir (1922)

''Sancta Civitas'' (The Holy City) oratorio, text mainly from the Book of Revelation (1923–25)

Te Deum in G major (1928)

''Benedicite'' for soprano, chorus, and orchestra (1929)

''In Windsor Forest'', adapted from the opera ''Sir John in Love'' (1929)

''Three Choral Hymns'' (1929)

''Magnificat'' for contralto, women's chorus, and orchestra (1932)

''Five Tudor Portraits'' for contralto, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1935)

''Dona nobis pacem'', text by Walt Whitman and other sources (1936)

''Festival Te Deum'' for chorus and orchestra or organ (1937)

''Serenade to Music'' for sixteen solo voices and orchestra, a setting of Shakespeare, dedicated to Sir Henry Joseph Wood on the occasion of his Jubilee (1938)

"Six Choral Songs To Be Sung In Time Of War" (1940)

''A Song of Thanksgiving'' (originally ''Thanksgiving for Victory'') for narrator, soprano solo, children's chorus, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1944)

''An Oxford Elegy'' for narrator, mixed chorus and small orchestra (1949)

''Three Shakespeare Songs'' for SATB unaccompanied, composed for The British Federation of Music Festivals National Competitive Festival (1951)

''O Taste and See'', a motet setting of Psalm 34:8. The original SATB version was composed for the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in June 1953. (1953)

''Hodie'', a Christmas oratorio (1954)

''Folk songs of the Four Seasons'' A Cantata for Women's Voices with Orchestra or pianoforte accompaniment (1950).

''Epithalamion'' for baritone solo, chorus, flute, piano, and strings (1957)

''A Choral Flourish'' for unaccompanied SATB chorus, composed for a large choral event in the Royal Albert Hall at the invitation of (and dedicated to) Alan Kirby (c. 1952)

''O How Amiable (1934)'' An arrangement of a hymn for chorus and organ, originally written for the Abinger Pageant

Arrangements of Christian hymns

Vaughan Williams was the musical editor of the English Hymnal of 1906, and the co-editor with Martin Shaw of Songs of Praise of 1925 and the Oxford Book of Carols of 1928, all in collaboration with Percy Dearmer. ''A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing'' ''All Creatures of Our God and King'' ''Alleluia, Sing to Jesus'' ''Amid the Thronging Worshippers'' ''At the Name of Jesus'' ''"Come Down, O Love Divine"'' original hymnody by Bianco of Siena (1434)''"Discendi, Amor santo"''and entitled "Down Ampney" in honour of Vaughan Williams's birthplace ''Come, Let Us with Our Lord Arise'' an Easter anthem ''Come Thou Long Expected Jesus'' a carol for the season of Advent

''For All the Saints'' harmonised from ''"Sine Nomine"''

''God Be With You Till We Meet Again'' ''I Love You Lord, My Strength, My Rock'' ''I Sing the Mighty Power of God'' ''Jesus, Lord, Redeemer''

''"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence",'' text of the Cherubic hymn of Liturgy of St James, harmonised to the French folk tune Picardy (1906)

''Make Room Within My Heart, O God''

''My God, My God, O Why Have You Forsaken Me?'' a lament for Good Friday services during Passiontide

''O Come to Me, the Master Said''

''"O Little Town of Bethlehem"'' a popular Christmas Carol penned by the American Phillips Brooks adapted to the English tune ''"Forest Green"''

''O Sing a Song of Bethlehem'' ''On Christmas Night All Christians Sing'' ''When the Church of Jesus''

Vocal

"Linden Lea", song (1901)

''The House of Life'', six sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, set to music (1904)

''Songs of Travel'' (1904)

"The Sky Above The Roof" (1908)

''On Wenlock Edge'', song cycle for tenor, piano and string quartet (1909)

''Along the Field'', for tenor and violin

''Three Poems by Walt Whitman'' for baritone and piano (1920)

''Four Poems by Fredegond Shove:'' for baritone and piano (1922)

''Four Hymns:'' for tenor, viola obbligato and piano (1914)

''Merciless Beauty'' for tenor, two violins, and cello

''Four Last Songs'' to poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams

''Ten Blake songs'', song cycle for high voice and oboe (1957)

Chamber and Instrumental

String Quartet in C minor (1897) (early composition)

String Quartet No. 1 in G minor (1908)

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor ("For Jean, on her birthday," 1942–44)

''Phantasy Quintet'' for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello (1912)

Piano Quintet in C minor for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano (1903)

Sonata in A minor for violin and piano (1952)

Romance for viola and piano (undated)

Six Studies in English Folk Song, for violoncello and piano (1926)

Organ

''Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes'' (Bryn Calfaria, Rhosymedre, Hyfrydol) (1920)

''Prelude and Fugue in C minor'' (1921)

''A Wedding Tune for Ann'' (1943)

''The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune'', harmonisation and arrangement (1953)

''Two Organ Preludes'' (The White Rock, St. David's Day) (1956)

Film, radio, and TV scores

''49th Parallel'', 1940, his first, talked into it by Muir Mathieson to assuage his guilt at being able to do nothing for the war effort

''Coastal Command'', 1942

BBC adaptation of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', 1942

''The People's Land'', 1943

''The Story of a Flemish Farm'', 1943

''Stricken Peninsula'', 1945

''The Loves of Joanna Godden'', 1946

''Scott of the Antarctic'', 1948, partially reused for his ''Sinfonia antartica'' (Symphony No. 7)

''The England of Elizabeth''

''Bitter Springs'', 1950

Band

''Rhosymedre''(based on a Welsh hymn tune for organ) for concert band (1920)

''English Folk Song Suite'' for military band (1923)

''Sea Songs'' (1923)

''Toccata Marziale'' for military band (1924)

''Overture: Henry V'' for brass band (1933/34)

''Flourish for Wind Band'' (1939)

''Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes'' arranged from the organ piece for brass band (1955) and published by Salvationist Publishing and Supplies

''Variations'' for brass band (1957)

Recordings

Vaughan Williams enjoys an extensive recorded legacy. Early recordings of individual symphonies made by Henry Wood (London), John Barbirolli (Fifth), Adrian Boult and Leopold Stokowski (both in the Sixth), and the composer's own recording of the Fourth, preceded several complete cycles. Stokowski's 1943 NBC Symphony broadcast of the Fourth Symphony has also been issued on CD, as has his 1964 Proms performance of the 8th with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Sir Eugene Goossens recorded the 1920 edition of ''A London Symphony'' with the Cincinnati Orchestra for RCA Victor in 1941, the only recording of that version of the score ever made. Boult taped the first cycle (Symphonies 1–8) for Decca in the early 1950s, completing it with No. 9 for the Everest label in 1958; he re-recorded all nine for EMI between 1967 and 1972. Other cycles have followed from André Previn, Bernard Haitink, Bryden Thomson, Vernon Handley, Leonard Slatkin and Richard Hickox.

Several other foreign conductors have also recorded individual Vaughan Williams symphonies: Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein both recorded the Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, the same orchestra with which Leopold Stokowski had made the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in 1949. This work was also recorded by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony in 1966. Paavo Berglund also recorded the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies and, among other CD releases, the Portuguese premiere of the Ninth Symphony, with Pedro de Freitas Branco conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal, has also been issued. Similarly, the US premiere of the Ninth Symphony, given by Leopold Stokowski in Carnegie Hall in 1958 'In Memoriam Vaughan Williams' has also been released on CD by Cala Records.

A first official release of the Symphony No. 5 conducted by the composer in 1952 was recently issued in the U.K. by Somm Recordings.

David Willcocks recorded much of the choral output for EMI in the 1960s and 1970s. Award-winning performances of the string quartets have followed on Naxos, which along with the Hyperion and Chandos labels have recorded much neglected material, including works for brass band and the rarely performed operas.

EMI Classics has issued a budget 30-CD set (34+ hours) with virtually all of Vaughan Williams's works, including alternative settings.

See also

International Council for Traditional Music

Notes

References

''Vaughan Williams on Music'', Ralph Vaughan Williams & David Manning. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-518239-2

''Heirs & Rebels'', Ralph Vaughan Williams & Gustav Holst; ed. Ursula Vaughan Williams & Imogen Holst. London, Oxford University Press, 1959.

''Vaughan Williams'', Simon Heffer. Northeastern; First American edition (1 March 2001). ISBN 978-1-55553-472-1.

External links

1956 audio interview with Vaughan Williams on his editing of the English Hymnal (from the BBC)

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society

Vaughan Williams Phantasy Quintet Soundbites and discussion of work

(on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death)

"Famous names in the First World War—Ralph Vaughan Williams" from The National Archives, includes extracts from his army service record, and his 1901 Census return.

Category:1872 births Category:1958 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Ballet composers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:Darwin-Wedgwood family Category:Deaf musicians Category:Decca Records artists Category:English agnostics Category:English composers Category:English folk-song collectors Category:English humanists Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:English socialists Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Old Carthusians Category:Opera composers Category:People from Cotswold (district) Category:Music and musicians from Gloucestershire Category:People of the Edwardian era Category:People of the Victorian era Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Composers for harmonica

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Arvo Pärt (born 11 September 1935; ) is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from Gregorian chant.

Pärt was born in Paide, Järva County, Estonia. A prolonged struggle with Soviet officials led him to emigrate with his wife and their two sons in 1980. He lived first in Vienna, Austria, where he took Austrian citizenship, and then re-located to Berlin, Germany. He returned to Estonia around the turn of the 21st century and now lives in Tallinn.

Musical development

Familiar works by Pärt are ''Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten'' for string orchestra and bell (1977) and the string quintet "Fratres I" (1977, revised 1983), which he transcribed for string orchestra and percussion, the solo violin "Fratres II" and the cello ensemble "Fratres III" (both 1980).

Pärt is often identified with the school of minimalism and, more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or holy minimalism. He is considered a pioneer of the latter style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki and John Tavener. Although his fame initially rested on instrumental works such as ''Tabula Rasa'' and ''Spiegel im Spiegel'', his choral works have also come to be widely appreciated.

Pärt's musical education began at age seven. He began attending music school in Rakvere, where his family lived. By the time he reached his early teen years, Pärt was writing his own compositions. While studying composition with Heino Eller at the Tallinn Conservatory in 1957, it was said of him that "he just seemed to shake his sleeves and notes would fall out."

In this period of Estonian history, Pärt was unable to encounter many musical influences from outside the Soviet Union except for a few illegal tapes and scores. Although Estonia had been an independent Baltic state at the time of Pärt's birth, the Soviet Union occupied it in 1940 as a result of the Soviet-Nazi Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; and the country would then remain under Soviet domination—except for the three-year period of German wartime occupation—for the next 51 years.

Musical oeuvre

Pärt's oeuvre is generally divided into two periods. His early works ranged from rather neo-classical styles influenced by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók. He then began to compose using Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique and serialism. This, however, not only earned the ire of the Soviet establishment, but also proved to be a creative dead-end. When early works were banned by Soviet censors, Pärt entered the first of several periods of contemplative silence, during which he studied choral music from the 14th to 16th centuries. In this context, Pärt's biographer, Paul Hillier, observed that "He had reached a position of complete despair in which the composition of music appeared to be the most futile of gestures, and he lacked the musical faith and will-power to write even a single note."

The spirit of early European polyphony informed the composition of Pärt's transitional Third Symphony (1971); and thereafter, he immersed himself in early music, re-investigating the roots of Western music. He studied plainsong, Gregorian chant, and the emergence of polyphony in the European Renaissance.

The music that began to emerge after this period was radically different. This period of new compositions included ''Fratres'', ''Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten'', and ''Tabula Rasa.'' Pärt describes the music of this period as tintinnabuli—like the ringing of bells. ''Spiegel im Spiegel'' (1978) is a well-known example which has been used in many films. The music is characterised by simple harmonies, often single unadorned notes, or triads, which form the basis of Western harmony. These are reminiscent of ringing bells. Tintinnabuli works are rhythmically simple and do not change tempo. Another characteristic of Pärt's later works is that they are frequently settings for sacred texts, although he mostly chooses Latin or the Church Slavonic language used in Orthodox liturgy instead of his native Estonian language. Large-scale works inspired by religious texts include ''St. John Passion'', ''Te Deum'', and ''Litany''. Choral works from this period include ''''Magnificat'''' and ''The Beatitudes''.

Of his popularity, Steve Reich has written: "Even in Estonia, Arvo was getting the same feeling that we were all getting .... I love his music, and I love the fact that he is such a brave, talented man .... He's completely out of step with the zeitgeist and yet he's enormously popular, which is so inspiring. His music fulfills a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion." Pärt's music came to public attention in the West, largely thanks to Manfred Eicher who recorded several of Pärt's compositions for ECM Records starting in 1984.

Invited by Walter Fink, he was the 15th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2005 in four concerts. Chamber music included ''Für Alina'' for piano, played by himself, ''Spiegel im Spiegel'' and ''Psalom'' for string quartet. The chamber orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra played his ''Trisagion'', ''Fratres'' and ''Cantus'' along with works of Bach. The Windsbach Boys Choir and soloists Sibylla Rubens, Ingeborg Danz, Markus Schäfer and Klaus Mertens performed ''Magnificat'' and ''Collage über B-A-C-H'' together with two cantatas of Bach and one of Mendelssohn. The Hilliard Ensemble, organist Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, the Rostocker Motettenchor and the Hilliard instrumental ensemble, conducted by Markus Johannes Langer, performed a program of Pärt's organ music and works for voices (some a cappella), including ''Pari Intervallo'', ''De profundis'' and ''Miserere''.

A new composition, ''Für Lennart'', written for the memory of the Estonian President Lennart Meri, was played at his funeral service on 2 April 2006.

In response to the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow on 7 October 2006, Pärt declared that all his works performed in 2006–2007 would be in honour of her death: :''"Anna Politkovskaya staked her entire talent, energy and—in the end—even her life on saving people who had become victims of the abuses prevailing in Russia."''— Arvo Pärt

Pärt was honoured as the featured composer of the 2008 RTÉ Living Music Festival in Dublin, Ireland. He was also commissioned by Louth Contemporary Music Society to compose a new choral work based on St. Patricks Breastplate, which premiered in 2008 in Louth, Ireland. The new work is called ''The Deers Cry.'' This is the composer's first Irish commission, having its debut in Drogheda and Dundalk in February 2008.

His recent (2008) ''Symphony No. 4'' is named “Los Angeles” and was dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. It is Pärt's first symphony written in over 37 years, since 1971's ''Symphony No. 3''. It premiered in Los Angeles, California, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on 10 January 2009, and has been nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Selected works

Awards

1996 – American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Music

1996 – Honorary Doctor of Music, University of Sydney

1998 – Honorary Doctor of Arts, University of Tartu

2003 – Honorary Doctor of Music, University of Durham

2008 – Léonie Sonning Music Prize

2010 – Honorary Doctor of Music, University of St Andrews

International Arvo Pärt Centre

The International Arvo Pärt Centre is being created in the Estonian village of Laulasmaa. The centre will include a research institute, an education and music centre, a museum, a publishing facility and an archive of the composer's works. It is planned to open in 2015.

References

Sources

Hillier, Paul. (1997). ''Arvo Pärt''. Oxford : Oxford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-198-16616-8; 13-ISBN 978-0-198-16616-0 (paper)

External links

Arvo Pärt biography and works on the UE website (publisher)

Arvo Pärt discography at Classical Net

Arvo Pärt Conference at Boston University

Complete Listing of Arvo Pärt's Works

Arvo Pärt – extensive site

arvopart.info – another comprehensive site with current news

David Pinkerton's Arvo Pärt archive – yet another extensive site, with some good analytical writing.

Biography in MUSICMATCH Guide – Small biography and list of works.

''Arvo Pärt and the New Simplicity'' – text of a radio interview from 11 October 1998

Steve Reich about Arvo Pärt, in an interview with Richard Williams, ''The Guardian'', 2 January 2004

Spike Magazine Interview

Lancing College Commission 'Original' Claudio Records Recording in the presence of the composer – Review/Information

International Arvo Pärt Centre – most up-to-date info and more

Category:1935 births Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:Ballet composers Category:ECM artists Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Estonia Category:Estonian composers Category:Estonian film score composers Category:Living people Category:Minimalist composers Category:People from Paide Category:Postmodern composers Category:Postminimalist composers Category:Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 1st Class Category:Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 2nd Class Category:Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre alumni Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Protestantism

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Jean-Baptiste de Lully (; ; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in 1661.

Biography

Lully, son of a working-class miller, was born in Florence, Italy. Lully had little education, but he learned basic techniques on the guitar, originally taught by a Franciscan friar of Florence. Later in France, he learned how to play the violin, and to dance. In 1646, he was discovered by Roger de Lorraine, the ''chevalier'' de Guise, son of Charles, Duke of Guise, and was taken to France, where he entered the services of Mademoiselle de Montpensier (''la Grande Mademoiselle'') as a scullery-boy and Italian-language teacher. With the help of this princess, his talent increased. He studied the theory of music under Nicolas Métru. It has been said that a scurrilous song on his patroness (the doggerel he set to music refers to a "sigh" she produced while at stool) resulted in his dismissal. It is far more likely that he did not want to moulder out in the provinces with the exiled princess.

He came into Louis XIV's service in late 1652, early 1653 as a dancer. He composed some music for the ''Ballet de la nuit'', which pleased the king immensely. He was appointed as the composer of instrumental music to the king, and placed at the head of the Petits Violons, the kings private violin band. In 1661, the King appointed Lully the ''Surintendant de la musique de la chambre du roi,'' which brought the twenty-four violons of the ''Grand Bande'' of Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi under Lully's command.

Lully composed many ballets for the King during the 1650s and 1660s, in which the King and Lully himself danced. He also had tremendous success composing the music for the comedies of Molière, including ''Le Mariage forcé'' (1664), ''L'Amour médecin'' (1665), and ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' (1670). It was when he met Molière that together they created the comédie-ballet. Louis XIV's interest in ballet waned as he aged, and his dancing ability declined (his last performance was in 1670) and so Lully pursued opera. He bought the privilege for opera from Pierre Perrin and, with the backing of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the king, created a new privilege which essentially gave Lully complete control of all music performed in France until his death in 1687.

He was known to be a libertine. In 1661, in letters of naturalization and in his marriage contract to Madeleine Lambert, daughter of Lully's friend and fellow musician Michel Lambert, Giovanni Battista Lulli declared himself as "'Jean-Baptiste de Lully, escuyer' son of 'Laurent de Lully, gentilhomme Florentin'". Although his life is full of meteoric heights, his love affairs with men and women also brought him down in scandal several times at the great displeasure of Louis XIV. Despite these scandals, he always managed to get back into the good graces of Louis XIV who found Lully essential for his musical entertainments and who thought of Lully as one of his few true friends.

On 8 January 1687, Lully was conducting a Te Deum in honor of Louis XIV's recent recovery from illness. He was beating time by banging a long staff (a precursor to the ''bâton'') against the floor, as was the common practice at the time, when he struck his toe, creating an abscess. The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread, resulting in his death on 22 March. He left his last opera, ''Achille et Polyxène'', unfinished. All three of his sons -- Louis Lully, Jean-Baptiste Lully fils and Jean-Louis Lully -- also had musical careers at the French court.

Music

Lully's music is from the Middle Baroque period, 1650 to 1700. Typical of Baroque music is the use of the ''basso continuo'' as the driving force behind the music. The pitch standard for French Baroque music was about 392 Hz for A above middle C, a whole tone lower than modern practice where A is usually 440 Hz.

Lully's music is known for its power, liveliness in its fast movements and its deep emotional character in its sad movements. Some of his most popular works are his ''passacaille'' (''passacaglia'') and ''chaconne'' which are dance movements found in many of his works such as ''Armide'' or ''Phaëton''.

The influence of Lully's music produced a radical revolution in the style of the dances of the court itself. Instead of the slow and stately movements which had prevailed until then, he introduced lively ballets of rapid rhythm. Lully also enjoyed the friendship of Molière, with whom he created a new music form, the ''comédie-ballet'' which combined theater, comedy, and ballet. He played a crucial role in synthesizing, consolidating and disseminating orchestral organization, scorings, performance practices, and repertory.

The instruments in his music were: five voices of strings such as ''dessus'' (a higher voice range than soprano), ''haute-contre'' (a type of high tenor voice), ''taille'' (baritenor), ''quinte'', ''basse''), divided as follows: one voice of violins, three voices of violas, one voice of cello, and ''basse de viole'' (viole, viola da gamba). He also utilized guitar, lute, archlute, theorbo, harpsichord, organ, oboe, bassoon, recorder, flute, brass instruments and various percussion instruments.

He is often credited with introducing new instruments into the orchestra, but this legend needs closer scrutiny. He continued to use recorders in preference to the newer transverse flute, and the "hautbois" he used in his orchestra were transitional instruments, somewhere between shawms and so-called Baroque oboes..

Lully founded French opera (''tragédie en musique'' or ''tragédie lyrique''), having found Italian-style opera inappropriate for the French language. Having found a congenial poet and librettist in Philippe Quinault, Lully composed many operas and other works, which were received enthusiastically. Lully can be considered the founder of French opera, having forsaken the Italian method of dividing musical numbers into separate ''recitatives'' and ''arias'', choosing instead to combine the two for dramatic effect. Lully also opted for quicker story development as was more to the taste of the French public.

Lully's music is still played regularly via recordings at the Palace of Versailles during the summertime in the gardens, setting the mood for one's visit.

Media

Cultural references

The relationship between Louis XIV and Lully was depicted in the French film by Gérard Corbiau, ''Le Roi danse'' (''The King is dancing'') in 2000.

References

Further reading

For his family, see the article by Jérôme de La Gorce, "Lully's Tuscan Family," pp. 1–15. The rest of the articles focus primarily on his music and its reception. Giannini, Tula. "The Music Library of Jean-Baptiste Christophe Ballard, Sole Music Printer to the King of France, 1750 Inventory of his Grand Collection Brought to Light." Indexed in RILM. See article at the Pratt Institute.

References

External links

Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection at the University of North Texas

Bibliothèque Nationale de France has a collection of autographs available on-line.

Category:17th-century French people Category:17th-century Italian people Category:1632 births Category:1687 deaths Category:Baroque composers Category:Bisexual musicians Category:French composers Category:French people of Italian descent Category:Italian composers Category:Italian emigrants to France Category:LGBT composers Category:LGBT musicians from France Category:Molière Category:Opera composers Category:Opera managers Category:People from Florence

ar:جون باتيست لولي br:Jean-Baptiste Lully bg:Жан-Батист Люли ca:Jean-Baptiste Lully cs:Jean-Baptiste Lully da:Jean-Baptiste Lully de:Jean-Baptiste Lully et:Jean-Baptiste Lully el:Ζαν Μπατίστ Λυλί es:Jean-Baptiste Lully eo:Jean-Baptiste Lully eu:Jean Baptiste Lully fa:ژان-باپتیست لولی fr:Jean-Baptiste Lully ko:장바티스트 륄리 hy:Ժան Բատիստ Լյուլլի hr:Jean-Baptiste Lully is:Jean-Baptiste Lully it:Jean-Baptiste Lully he:ז'אן-בטיסט לולי ka:ჟან ბატისტ ლული la:Ioannes Baptista Lully lv:Žans Batists Lulli hu:Jean-Baptiste Lully nl:Jean-Baptiste Lully ja:ジャン＝バティスト・リュリ no:Jean-Baptiste Lully nn:Jean-Baptiste Lully oc:Jean-Baptiste Lully pms:Jean-Baptiste Lully nds:Jean-Baptiste Lully pl:Jean-Baptiste Lully pt:Jean-Baptiste Lully ro:Jean-Baptiste Lully ru:Люлли, Жан-Батист simple:Jean-Baptiste Lully sk:Jean-Baptiste Lully sl:Jean-Baptiste Lully sr:Жан-Батист Лили sh:Jean-Baptiste Lully fi:Jean-Baptiste Lully sv:Jean-Baptiste Lully th:ฌอง-แบ๊ปติสต์ ลุลลี่ tr:Jean-Baptiste Lully uk:Жан Батіст Люллі zh:让-巴普蒂斯特·吕利