1.
Italians in France
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Italian migration into what is today France has been going on, in different migrating cycles, for centuries, beginning in prehistoric times right to the modern age. In addition, Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1768, according to Robin Cohen, about 5 million French nationals are of Italian origin if their parentage is retraced over three generations. According to official data of the Eurostat for 2012, the number of Italian citizens residing in France was 174,000, there has always been migration, since ancient times, between what is today Italy and France, but at a limited extent. This is especially true of the regions of northwestern Italy and southeastern France, regions of significant Italian diaspora sprang up as far north as Paris and Flanders. However it was not much as a percentage of the French global population and this Italian migration developed more through the Renaissance, as previous generations became assimilated. Since the 16th century, Florence and its citizens have long enjoyed a close relationship with France. In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Catherine de Medici married Henry, under the gallicised version of her name, Catherine de Médici, she became Queen consort of France when Henry ascended to the throne in 1547. Later on, after Henry died, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers, after Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. Mazarin succeeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu, and extended Frances political ambitions not only within Italy, enrico Tonti, born near Gaeta, Italy was an Italian-born soldier, explorer, and fur trader in the service of France. He was the son of Lorenzo de Tonti, a financier and former governor of Gaeta, enrico was second in command of the La Salle expedition on his descent of the Mississippi River. Tontis letters and journals are valuable source materials on these explorations, several months later, both Cadillac and Tonty brought their wives to the fort, making them the first European women to travel into the interior of North America. He was the son of Lorenzo de Tonti who was a financier and former governor of Gaeta, Lorenzo de Tonti was the inventor of the form of life insurance known as the tontine. Henri de Tonti, involved in LaSalles exploration of the Mississippi River and it should be noted that Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor and general, was ethnically Italian of Corsican origin, whose family was of Genoese and Tuscan ancestry. Italian popular immigration to France only began in the late 18th century, really developed from the end of the 19th century until the World War I, France needed workforce to compensate for the war losses and its very low birthrate. Initially, Italian immigration to modern France came predominantly from northern Italy and it wasnt until after World War II that large numbers of immigrants from southern Italy immigrated to France, usually settling in industrialised areas of France, such as Lorraine, Paris and Lyon. The number of inhabitants with Italian ancestry is generally indeterminable, henri Cernuschi, banker, journalist, and art collector. His collection is known as the Musée Cernuschi
2.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
3.
Louis XIV of France
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Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any monarch of a country in European history. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIVs France was a leader in the centralization of power. Louis began his rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs, under his rule, the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to Huguenots, was abolished. The revocation effectively forced Huguenots to emigrate or convert in a wave of dragonnades, which managed to virtually destroy the French Protestant minority. During Louis reign, France was the leading European power, and it fought three wars, the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg. There were also two lesser conflicts, the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions, warfare defined Louis XIVs foreign policies, and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique, in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military, Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné and bore the title of French heirs apparent. At the time of his birth, his parents had married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631, leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God. Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, in defiance of custom, which would have made Queen Anne the sole Regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his sons behalf. His lack of faith in Queen Annes political abilities was his primary rationale and he did, however, make the concession of appointing her head of the council. Louis relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time, contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis journal entries, such as, but attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood
4.
Baroque music
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Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era, Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality, an approach to writing music in which a song or piece is written in a particular key, during the Baroque era, professional musicians were expected to be accomplished improvisers of both solo melodic lines and accompaniment parts. A characteristic Baroque form was the dance suite, while the pieces in a dance suite were inspired by actual dance music, dance suites were designed for listening, not for accompanying dancers. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate ornamentation, made changes in musical notation. Many musical terms and concepts from this era, such as toccata, fugue, dense, complex polyphonic music, in which multiple independent melody lines were performed simultaneously, was an important part of many Baroque choral and instrumental works. The word baroque comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning misshapen pearl, the term Baroque is generally used by music historians to describe a broad range of styles from a wide geographic region, mostly in Europe, composed over a period of approximately 150 years. The systematic application by historians of the baroque to music of this period is a relatively recent development. In 1919, Curt Sachs became the first to apply the five characteristics of Heinrich Wölfflins theory of the Baroque systematically to music, all of these efforts resulted in appreciable disagreement about time boundaries of the period, especially concerning when it began. In English the term acquired currency only in the 1940s, in the writings of Bukofzer, nevertheless, the term has become widely used and accepted for this broad range of music. It may be helpful to distinguish the Baroque from both the preceding and following periods of musical history, the Baroque period is divided into three major phases, early, middle, and late. Although they overlap in time, they are dated from 1580 to 1630, from 1630 to 1680. In reference to music, they based their ideals on a perception of Classical musical drama that valued discourse, the early realizations of these ideas, including Jacopo Peris Dafne and LEuridice, marked the beginning of opera, which were a catalyst for Baroque music. Concerning music theory, the widespread use of figured bass represents the developing importance of harmony as the linear underpinnings of polyphony. Harmony is the end result of counterpoint, and figured bass is a representation of those harmonies commonly employed in musical performance. With figured bass, numbers, accidentals or symbols were placed above the bassline that was read by keyboard instrument players such as players or pipe organists. The numbers, accidentals or symbols indicated to the player what intervals she should play above each bass note. The keyboard player would improvise a chord voicing for each bass note and this led to the idea that certain sequences of chords, rather than just notes, could provide a sense of closure at the end of a piece—one of the fundamental ideas that became known as tonality
5.
Citizenship
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Citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as being a legal member of a sovereign state. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless. Nationality is often used as a synonym for citizenship in English – notably in international law – although the term is understood as denoting a persons membership of a nation. In some countries, e. g. the United States, each country has its own policies, regulations and criteria as to who is entitled to its citizenship. A person can be recognised or granted citizenship on a number of bases, usually citizenship based on the place of birth is automatic, in other cases an application may be required. If one or both of a persons parents are citizens of a state, then the person may have the right to be a citizen of that state as well. Formerly this might only have applied through the line. Citizenship is granted based on ancestry or ethnicity, and is related to the concept of a nation state common in China, where jus sanguinis holds, a person born outside a country, one or both of whose parents are citizens of the country, is also a citizen. States normally limit the right to citizenship by descent to a number of generations born outside the state. This form of citizenship is not common in civil law countries, Some people are automatically citizens of the state in which they are born. This form of citizenship originated in England where those who were born within the realm were subjects of the monarch, in many cases both jus solis and jus sanguinis hold, citizenship either by place or parentage. Many countries fast-track naturalization based on the marriage of a person to a citizen, States normally grant citizenship to people who have entered the country legally and been granted permit to stay, or been granted political asylum, and also lived there for a specified period. Some states allow dual citizenship and do not require naturalized citizens to renounce any other citizenship. In the past there have been exclusions on entitlement to citizenship on grounds such as color, ethnicity, sex. Most of these no longer apply in most places. The United States grants citizenship to those born as a result of reproductive technologies, Some exclusions still persist for internationally adopted children born before Feb 27,1983 even though their parents meet citizenship criteria. Polis meant both the assembly of the city-state as well as the entire society. Citizenship has generally been identified as a western phenomenon, there is a general view that citizenship in ancient times was a simpler relation than modern forms of citizenship, although this view has come under scrutiny
6.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
7.
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchys capital was Florence, Tuscany was nominally a state of the Holy Roman Empire until the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Initially, Tuscany was ruled by the House of Medici until the extinction of its branch in 1737. The Medicis only advancement in the days of their existence was their elevation to royalty, by the Holy Roman Emperor. Francis Stephen of Lorraine, a descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family. Tuscany was governed by a viceroy, Marc de Beauvau-Craon, for his entire rule and his descendants ruled, and resided in, the grand duchy until 1859, barring one interruption, when Napoleon Bonaparte gave Tuscany to the House of Bourbon-Parma. Following the collapse of the Napoleonic system in 1814, the duchy was restored. The United Provinces of Central Italy, a client state of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, Tuscany was formally annexed to Sardinia in 1860, following a landslide referendum, in which 95% of voters approved. In 1569, Cosimo de Medici had ruled the Duchy of Florence for 32 years, during his reign, Florence purchased the island of Elba from the Republic of Genoa, conquered Siena and developed a well-equipped and powerful naval base on Elba. Cosimo also banned the clergy from holding positions and promulgated laws of freedom of religion. Cosimo also was a supporter of Pope Pius V, who in the light of Florences expansion in August 1569 declared Cosimo Grand Duke of Tuscany. The international reaction to Cosimos elevation was bleak, Queen Catherine of France, though herself a Medici, viewed Cosimo with the utmost disdain. Rumours circulated at the Viennese court that had Cosimo as a candidate for King of England, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King Philip II of Spain reacting quite angrily, as Florence was an Imperial fief and declared Pius Vs actions invalid. However, Maximilian eventually confirmed the elevation with an Imperial diploma in 1576, during the Holy League of 1571, Cosimo fought against the Ottoman Empire, siding with the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy League inflicted a defeat against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto. Cosimos reign was one of the most militaristic Tuscany had ever seen, Cosimo experienced several personal tragedies during the later years of his reign. His wife, Eleanor of Toledo, died in 1562, along with four of his due to a plague epidemic in Florence. These deaths were to him greatly, which, along with illness
8.
Franciscans
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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
9.
Harlequin
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Harlequin is the best-known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dellarte. The Harlequin is characterized by his chequered costume and he later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. As the Harlequinade portion of English dramatic genre pantomime developed, Harlequin was routinely paired with the character Clown, as developed by Joseph Grimaldi around 1800, Clown became the mischievous and brutish foil for the more sophisticated Harlequin, who became more of a romantic character. The most influential such pair in Victorian England were the Payne Brothers, although the origins of the Harlequin are obscure there are several theories for how the character came to be. These demons were led by a masked, club-wielding giant and they were known as familia herlequin and this medieval French version of the Germanic Wild Hunt, Mesnée dHellequin, has been connected to the English figure of Herla cyning. Hellequin was depicted as an emissary of the devil, roaming the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil people to Hell. The physical appearance of Hellequin offers an explanation for the colours of Harlequins red-and-black mask. The names origin could also be traced to a knight from the 9th century, Hellequin of Boulogne, cantos XXI and XXII from Dantes Inferno there is a devil by the name of Alichino. The re-interpretation of the stock character as a zanni character of the commedia dellarte took place in the 16th century in France. Zan Ganassa, whose troupe is first mentioned in Mantua in the late 1560s, is one of the earliest known actors suggested to have performed the part, although there is little hard evidence to support. Ganassa performed in France in 1571, and if he did play the part there, he left the open for another actor to take up the role. The motley costume is sometimes attributed to Martinelli, who wore a costume of colourful patches. Martinellis Harlequin also had a black leather half-mask, a moustache and he was very successful, even playing at court and becoming a favourite of Henry IV of France, to whom he addressed insolent monologues. 1630 in Bologna as well as Turin and Mantua, the Italians were expelled from France in 1697 for satirizing King Louis XIVs second wife, Madame de Maintenon, but returned in 1716, when Tommaso Antonio Vicentini became famous in the part. The rhombus shape of the patches arose by adaptation to the Paris fashion of the 17th century by Biancolelli, the primary aspect of Arlecchino was his physical agility. He was very nimble and performed the sort of acrobatics the audience expected to see, the character would never perform a simple action when the addition of a cartwheel, somersault, or flip would spice up the movement. By contrast with the first zanni Harlequin takes little or no part in the development of the plot and he has the more arduous task of maintaining the even rhythm of the comedy as a whole. Arlecchino is sometimes referred to as putting on a show of stupidity in a attempt to create chaos within the play
10.
Mardi Gras
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Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. Related popular practices are associated with Shrovetide celebrations before the fasting, in countries such as England, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is derived from the word shrive, meaning confess. In many areas, the term Mardi Gras has come to mean the period of activity related to the celebratory events. In some American cities, it is now called Mardi Gras Day, the festival season varies from city to city, as some traditions, such as the one in New Orleans, Louisiana, consider Mardi Gras to stretch the entire period from Twelfth Night to Ash Wednesday. Others treat the final period before Ash Wednesday as the Mardi Gras. In earlier times, parades were held on New Years Day, Carnival is an important celebration in Anglican and Catholic European nations. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the week before Ash Wednesday is called Shrovetide and it has its popular celebratory aspects, as well. Pancakes and related fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat, and eggs are traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is an annual LGBT pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. In the Belgian city of Binche, the Mardi Gras festival is one of the most important days of the year, around 1000 Gilles dance throughout the city from morning until past dusk, whilst traditional carnival songs play. In 2003, the Carnival of Binche was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral, Carnival is the most famous Brazilian holiday. During this time, Brazil attracts 70% of its tourists, variations in carnival celebrations are observed throughout the multitude of Brazilian cities. Yet, a commonality observed among them is the incorporation of samba into the celebrations, the southeastern cities of Brazil have massive parades that take place in large sambadromes. The Rio Carnival is where two million people celebrate in the city, the city of Salvador holds a very large carnival celebration where millions of people celebrate the party in the streets of the city with a very big diversity of musical styles together. Cayman Mardi Gras has now been recognised as one of the national festivals. Celebrating the traditional Fat Tuesday, they also host a festive Monday Food Festival as well as an all day EDM Ash Wednesday, the event attracts thousands of attendees during the 3 day festival and includes a line up of international celebrities and performers. The Cayman Mardi Gras Festival is slowly becoming a major tourist attraction to the island nation, Carnaval de Barranquilla is Colombias Mardi Gras celebration. In 2003, it was proclaimed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral, in the Czech Republic it is a folk tradition to celebrate Mardi Gras, which is called Masopust
11.
Charles, Duke of Guise
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Charles de Lorraine, 4th Duke of Guise was the son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves. He was born in Joinville, in the Champagne-Ardenne region of northeastern France, originally styled the Chevalier de Guise, he succeeded as Duke of Chevreuse upon the death of his great-uncle Charles of Guise, Cardinal of Lorraine, a title he later resigned to his brother Claude. After his fathers assassination in 1588, he succeeded him as Duke of Guise, in 1595, he captured Marseille from the Duc dÉpernon, who held it for the League. He was later created Grand Master of France and Admiral of the Levant, falling into disfavor with Cardinal Richelieu for siding with Marie de Medici, he withdrew to Italy in 1631. His wife and younger children joined him in Florence, where the family was protected by the House of Medici and his sons François and Charles Louis died in Italy during these years of exile. Duke Charles himself died, at Cuneo, in 1640 and his widow and children (among them Marie, Mademoiselle de Guise were permitted to return to France in 1643. He was deemed the most accomplished prince of his day, twin boys, who were very frail and sickly. They died on the same day
12.
Nicolas Gigault
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Nicolas Gigault was a French Baroque organist and composer. Born into poverty, he rose to fame and high reputation among fellow musicians. His surviving works include the earliest examples of noëls and a volume of works representative of the 1650–1675 style of the French organ school, little is known about Gigaults life. François-Joseph Fétis, a 19th-century musicologist, claimed Gigault was born in Clayes-en-Brie, however, no locality survives by that name. It is supposed that Gigaults birthplace was just outside Paris, Gigaults father, Estienne Gigault, was a bailiff at the law-courts of Paris. Gigault was born into poverty and his situation remained dire at least until 1648. Nicolas Gigaults mother died when he was a child, nothing is known about his education or how he came to become a musician. Pirro suggested several possible teachers, among them Charles Racquet, fétiss early claim that Jean Titelouze taught Racquet is now regarded as insubstantial, since Gigault was too young and his family could not afford trips to Rouen, where Titelouze worked. As far as is known, Gigaults career began in 1646 when he was appointed organist of Saint-Honoré, in 1652 he left to take a similar position at Saint Nicolas-des-Champs, where he worked until his death. Gigault also served as organist at Saint Martin-des-Champs from 1673, Gigault must have had a professional relationship with Étienne Richard, who worked with him at Saint Nicolas-des-Champs, and who also was organist of Saint Martin-des-Champs until his death in 1669. The first marriage, to Marie Aubert in 1662, produced five children, the sons, Anne-Joseph and Anne-Joachim, became organists. Gigaults youngest daughter Emérentienne-Margueritte married an organ-builder and one of her two children, Augustin-Hypolite Ducastel, became a harpsichord-builder, Marie Aubert died on 7 August 1700. Gigault soon remarried, but himself died just a few years later, apart from his activities as organist, Gigault was also in demand as an organ consultant and as an instrumentalist. Gigault published two collections of organ works, the first, Livre de musique dédié а la Très Saincte Vierge of 1682, contains the earliest known examples of the French noël and an allemande. Gigaults 20 noëls include variations on Christmas songs and church hymns connected to Christmas and these pieces always progress from two-part to four-part settings and feature a somewhat rigid variation technique. In the preface Gigault suggests that these pieces can be performed on any instruments, i. e. on a pair of viols, or on a lute, the solitary allemande bears no connection whatsoever to Christmas. It is presented in two versions, the second being set in ports de voix, showing various common ornamentation patterns, Gigaults second collection, Livre de musique pour lorgue of 1685, contains 184 pieces. It begins with three masses, which rely heavily on Mass IV melodies, like all other surviving French organ masses from the period
13.
Fronde
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The Fronde was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The king confronted the opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law courts, and most of the French people. The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Fronde of the parlements and the Fronde of the nobles, the timing of the outbreak of the Fronde des parlements, directly after the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years War, was significant. A. Lloyd Moote argues that Cardinal Mazarin blundered into the crisis, the Fronde represented the final attempt of the French nobility to do battle with the king, and they were humiliated. The long-term result was to strengthen Royal authority, but to weaken the economy, the Fronde facilitated the emergence of absolute monarchy. The French word fronde means sling, Parisian crowds used slings to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin, the Fronde in the end provided an incentive for the establishment of royalist absolutism, since the disorders eventually discredited the feudal concept of liberty. The pressure that saw the traditional liberties under threat came in the form of extended and increased taxes as the Crown needed to recover from its expenditures in the recent wars. The costs of the Thirty Years War constrained Mazarins government to raise funds by means, the impôts, the taille. The nobility refused to be so taxed, based on their old liberties, or privileges, and the brunt fell upon the bourgeoisie. When Louis XIV became king in 1643, he was only a child, most historians consider that Louiss later insistence on absolutist rule and depriving the nobility of actual power was a result of these events in his childhood. The military record of the first Fronde is almost blank, the noble faction demanded the calling of an assembly of the Estates General. The nobles believed that in the Estates-General they could continue to control the element as they had in the past. The royal faction, having no army at its disposal, had to release the prisoners. But Frances signing of the Peace of Westphalia allowed the French army to return from the frontiers, the two warring parties signed the Peace of Rueil after little blood had been shed. From then on the Fronde became a story of intrigues, half-hearted warfare in a scramble for power and control of patronage, the military operations fell into the hands of war-experienced mercenaries, led by two great, and many lesser, generals. The peace of Rueil lasted until the end of 1649, the princes, received at court once more, renewed their intrigues against Mazarin. On 14 January 1650, Cardinal Mazarin, having come to an understanding with Monsieur Gondi and Madame de Chevreuse, suddenly arrested Condé, Conti, the war which followed this coup is called the Princes Fronde. This time it was Turenne, before and afterwards the most loyal soldier of his day, listening to the promptings of Madame de Longueville, he resolved to rescue her brother Condé, his old comrade in the battles of Freiburg and Nördlingen
14.
Ballet Royal de la Nuit
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Ballet de la Nuit is a ballet by Jean-Baptiste Boësset, Jean de Cambefort, and Michel Lambert featuring music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. It is ballet de cour, premiered February 23,1653 at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon and it took 13 hours to perform and debuted fourteen year old Louis XIV as Apollo, the Sun King. The ballet was the subject of the Oxford Dance Symposium in 2004, Ballet de la Nuit was divided into four parts providing detailed elements of the landscape of the night. Composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, it was an extravagant court spectacle featuring forty-five entrees, the plot included mythological goddesses such as Venus and Diana, werewolves, demonic creatures and witches who celebrated a black Sabbath in the horrors of the night. Shepherds, gypsies, thieves, lamplighters, beggars and crippled are among the characters of the play. King Louis XIV appears with the coming of the day as the sun god Apollo, one of his many personifications as the sun, emphasizing the power of the monarchy. Henri de Gissey, Dessinateur ordinaire du Cabinet du Roy, was in charge of design for the royal ballets. A collection of 10 scenic and 117 costume designs for the made for Louis Hesselin. Another folio with 119 costume designs made for Denis-Pierre-Jean Papillon de la Ferté is now in Paris at the Bibliothèque de lInstitut, there is one scene from Ballet Royal de la Nuit in the historical movie Le Roi danse. Le Ballet de la Nuit, Rothschild B1/16/6, apollos Angels A history of Ballet by Jennifer Homans 2010 French ballet Louis XIV of France List of compositions by Jean-Baptiste Lully Waddesdon Manor the ballet livret, costumes and scenery
15.
Francesco Cavalli
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Francesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron Federico Cavalli. Cavalli was born at Crema, Lombardy and he became a singer at St Marks Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665 and he is chiefly remembered for his operas. He began to write for the stage in 1639 soon after the first public house opened in Venice. He established so great a reputation that he was summoned to Paris from 1660 until 1662 and he died in Venice at the age of 73. Cavalli was the most influential composer in the genre of public opera in mid-17th-century Venice. Cavalli introduced melodious arias into his music and popular types into his libretti, Cavalli wrote forty-one operas, twenty-seven of which are still extant, being preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. Copies of some of the operas also exist in other locations, cavallis music was revived in the twentieth century. The Glyndebourne production of La Calisto is an example, the discography is extensive and Cavalli has featured in BBC Radio 3s Composer of the Week series. Music of Venice Notes Further reading Bukofzer, Manfred, Music in the Baroque Era, new York, W. W. Norton & Company,1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5 Glixon, Beth L. and Jonathan E. Inventing the Business of Opera, The Impresario, ISBN 0-312-12546-1 Rosand, Ellen, Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice. ISBN 0-520-06808-4 Selfridge-Field, Eleanor, Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi, ISBN 0-486-28151-5 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Cavalli, Francesco. Free scores by Francesco Cavalli in the Choral Public Domain Library Rodrigo, free scores by Francesco Cavalli at the International Music Score Library Project
16.
Xerse
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Xerse is an opera by Francesco Cavalli about Xerxes I. The libretto was written by Nicolò Minato, and was set by both Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel. Minatos plot outline is based on Book 7 of Herodotuss Histories. The opera, consisting of a prologue and three acts, was first performed at Venice on the 12 January 1654, at the Teatro SS Giovanni e Paolo. The opera was popular in Italy, not least due to Cavallis setting of Ombra mai fù,9 different revivals were given across Italy while Cavalli lived. In 1660 Cavalli was persuaded to travel to France to produce a new opera for the wedding of Louis XIV in Paris, xerse was given with ballets by Cavallis rival Jean-Baptiste Lully, a Florentine who had become the official court composer in France. The whole spectacle lasted eight or nine hours and the French audience had little appreciation for an opera in a foreign language, preferring Lullys dance music. Xerse René Jacobs, Judith Nelson, Isabelle Poulenard, Guy de Mey, Dominique Visse, Concerto Vocale, conducted by René Jacobs Sources Clinkscale, Martha Novak
17.
Michel Lambert
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Michel Lambert was a French singing master, theorbist and composer. Lambert was born at Champigny-sur-Veude, France and he received his musical education as an altar boy at the Chapel of Gaston dOrléans. He studied also with Pierre de Nyert in Paris, since 1636, he was known as a singing teacher. In 1641, he married singer Gabrielle Dupuis who died suddenly a year later and their daughter Madeleine became a wife of Jean-Baptiste Lully. After his marriage, Lamberts career became linked to his sister-in-law. In 1651, he appears as a dancer at the court of Louis XIV. Beginning in 1656, his reputation as a composer was established and they consist mainly of airs on the poems of Benserade and Quinault. He was the most prolific composer of tunes in the half of the seventeenth century. In 1661, he succeeded Jean de Cambefort as a maître de musique de la chambre du roi, in that time, Lully was a superintendent of the royal music. Lamberts role as a master and composer of dramatic airs contributed to the creation of the French opera. As a singing master, he enjoyed a reputation attested by many testimonies of his time, titon du Tillet mentions concerts given in his house in Puteaux, during which Lambert himself accompanied on theorbo. He also collaborated with Lully in the creation of several ballets
18.
Polyphony
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Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term polyphony is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. In all cases the conception was probably what Margaret Bent calls dyadic counterpoint, with part being written generally against one other part. The term polyphony is also used more broadly, to describe any musical texture that is not monophonic. Such a perspective considers homophony as a sub-type of polyphony, traditional polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. Most polyphonic regions of the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and it is believed that the origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predate the emergence of polyphony in European professional music. Currently there are two approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony, the Cultural Model. Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown,900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance. 1000, is the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant. Twelfth-century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, the lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody. The oldest surviving piece of music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in. These musical innovations appeared in a context of societal change. After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular, Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages. However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire. Once these ancient works started being translated thus becoming accessible, the philosophies had a impact on the mind of Western Europe. This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. Avignon, the seat of the antipopes, was a center of secular music-making
19.
Nicolas Fouquet
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Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a career, and acquired enormous wealth. He fell out of favor, accused of peculation and lèse-majesté, the king had him imprisoned from 1661 until his death in 1680. While still in his teens, he held positions of responsibility. In 1640, he married the rich Louise Fourché, who died a year later, during Mazarins exile, Fouquet remained loyal to him, protecting his property and keeping him informed of the situation at court. Fouquet received around 160,000 Livres from the marriage dowry, as minister of finance, he soon had Mazarin almost in the position of a supplicant. His closest friend, and maybe mistress, was Suzanne de Rougé, Colbert, perhaps seeking to succeed Fouquet, fed the kings displeasure with adverse reports upon the deficit and made the worst of the case against Fouquet. The extravagant expenditures and displays of the superintendents wealth served to intensify the ill will of the king, Fouquet had bought the port of Belle-Île-en-Mer and strengthened the fortifications with a view to taking refuge there in case of disgrace. Here he gathered the rarest manuscripts, paintings, jewels and antiques in profusion, the table was open to all people of quality, and the kitchen was presided over by François Vatel. Jean de La Fontaine, Pierre Corneille and Paul Scarron were a few of the artists who enjoyed his patronage. The coat of arms of Fouquets family traditionally showed a squirrel, the symbol can be found in many rooms and decorations at Vaux-le-Vicomte. The choice of this animal derives from the name foucquet, which in the dialect of Angers means squirrel, by August 1661, Louis XIV was already set upon Fouquets destruction. Louis was entertained at Vaux with a fête rivaled in magnificence by only one or two others in French history, at which Molières Les Fâcheux was produced for the first time, the splendour of the entertainment sealed Fouquets fate. But the king, then only 22 years old, was afraid to act openly against so powerful a minister, as Superintendent, Fouquet headed the enormously wealthy and influential corps of partisans, who, if challenged as a group, could have caused the king serious trouble. By crafty devices, Fouquet was induced to sell his office of procureur général, thus losing the protection of its privileges, after his visit to Vaux, the king announced that he was going to Nantes for the opening of the meeting of the provincial estates of Brittany. He required his ministers, including Fouquet, to go with him, when Fouquet was leaving the council chamber, flattered with the assurance of the kings esteem, he was arrested by Charles de Batz-Castelmore dArtagnan, lieutenant of the kings musketeers. The trial lasted almost three years, and its violation of the forms of justice is still the subject of frequent monographs by members of the French bar, Louis acted throughout as though he were conducting a campaign, evidently fearing that Fouquet would play the part of a Richelieu. A report of his trial was published in the Netherlands, in 15 volumes, in 1665-67, a second edition under the title of Oeuvres de M. Fouquet appeared in 1696
20.
Vaux-le-Vicomte
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The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun,55 kilometres southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André le Nôtre, and their collaboration marked the beginning of the Louis XIV style combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. The gardens pronounced visual axis is an example of this style, Fouquet was an avid patron of the arts, attracting many artists with his generosity. When Fouquet became King Louis XIVs superintendent of finances in 1657, he commissioned Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Nôtre to renovate his estate, fouquet’s artistic and cultivated personality subsequently brought out the best in the three. To secure the necessary grounds for the plans for Vaux-le-Vicomte’s garden and castle. The displaced villagers were employed in the upkeep and maintenance of the gardens. It was said to have employed 18 thousand workers and cost as much as 16 million livres, the château and its patron became for a short time a focus for fine feasts, literature and arts. The poet Jean de La Fontaine and the playwright Molière were among the close to Fouquet. At the inauguration of Vaux-le-Vicomte, a Molière play was performed, along with an event organized by François Vatel. The celebration had been too impressive and the superintendents home too luxurious, Fouquets intentions were to flatter the king, part of Vaux-le-Vicomte was actually constructed specifically for the king, but Fouquets plan backfired. Jean-Baptiste Colbert led the king to believe that his ministers magnificence was funded by the misappropriation of public funds, Colbert, who then replaced Fouquet as superintendent of finances, arrested him. Later, Voltaire was to sum up the famous fête, On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France, La Fontaine wrote describing the fête and shortly afterwards penned his Elégie aux nymphes de Vaux. After Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life and his wife exiled, the king seized, confiscated or purchased 120 tapestries, the statues and all the orange trees from Vaux-le-Vicomte. He then sent the team of artists to design what would be a larger project than Vaux-le-Vicomte. Madame Fouquet recovered her property 10 years later and retired there with her eldest son, in 1705, after the death of her husband and son, she decided to put Vaux-le-Vicomte up for sale. Marshal Claude Louis Hector de Villars became the new owner without first seeing the chateau, in 1764, the Marshals son sold the estate to the Duke of Praslin, whose descendants would maintain the property for over a century. In 1875, after thirty years of neglect, the estate was sold to Alfred Sommier in a public auction, the château was empty, some of the outbuildings had fallen into ruin and the famous gardens were totally overgrown. The huge task of restoration and refurbishment began under the direction of the architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur, when Sommier died in 1908, the château and the gardens had recovered their original appearance
21.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
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Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a French composer of the Baroque era. Exceptionally prolific and versatile, Charpentier produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres and his mastery in writing sacred vocal music, above all, was recognized and hailed by his contemporaries. Any family relationship between him and Gustave Charpentier, the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century French opera composer, is highly unlikely, Charpentier was born in or near Paris, the son of a master scribe who had very good connections to influential families in the Parlement of Paris. Marc-Antoine received a good education, perhaps with the help of the Jesuits. He spent two or three years in Rome, probably between 1667 and 1669, and studied with Giacomo Carissimi and he is also known to have been in contact with poet-musician Charles Coypeau dAssoucy, who was composing for the French Embassy in Rome. A legend claims that Charpentier initially traveled to Rome to study painting before he was discovered by Carissimi, regardless, he acquired a solid knowledge of contemporary Italian musical practice and brought it back to France. Immediately on his return to France, Charpentier probably began working as composer to Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Guise. Throughout the 1670s, the bulk of works were for trios. Then, about 1680, Mlle de Guise increased the size of the ensemble, until it included 13 performers, in the pieces written from 1684 until late 1687, the names of the Guise musicians appear as marginalia in Charpentiers manuscripts – including Charp beside the haute-contre line. Étienne Loulié, the senior instrumentalist who played keyboard, recorder and viole, despite what is often asserted, during his seventeen years in the service of Mlle de Guise, Charpentier was not the director of the Guise ensemble. The director was a gentleman of Mlle de Guises court, a musician, Italophile. During his years of service to Mlle de Guise, Charpentier also composed for Mme de Guise and it was in large part owing to Mme de Guises protection that the Guise musicians were permitted to perform Charpentiers chamber operas in defiance of the monopoly held by Jean Baptiste Lully. By late 1687, Mlle de Guise was dying, around that time, Charpentier entered the employ of the Jesuits. Indeed, he is not named in the princesss will of March 1688, nor in the papers of her estate, during his seventeen-odd years at the Hôtel de Guise, Charpentier had written almost as many pages of music for outside commissions as he had for Mlle de Guise. For example, after Molières falling out with Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1672, after Molières death in 1673, Charpentier continued to write for the playwrights successors, Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau de Visé. Play after play, he would compose pieces that demanded more musicians than the number authorized by Lullys monopoly over theatrical music, by 1685, the troop ceased flouting these restrictions. Their capitulation ended Charpentiers career as a composer for the spoken theater, in 1679, Charpentier had been singled out to compose for Louis XIVs son, the Dauphin. In short, an ensemble that, with Mlle de Guises permission, by early 1683, when he was awarded a royal pension, Charpentier was being commissioned to write for court events such as the annual Corpus Christi procession
22.
Pierre Perrin
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Pierre Perrin was a French poet and librettist. Perrin, sometimes known as LAbbé Perrin although he never belonged to the clergy, was born in Lyon and he founded the Académie Royale de Musique, which was to eventually become the Opéra de Paris. He worked with Robert Cambert, creating with him La Pastorale dIssy in 1659, with Cambert, he also created Pomone, which inaugurated the opening of the first salle de lOpéra in 1671, of which he had obtained the privilege from King Louis XIV. He also presented there his Les peines et les plasirs de lamour, a poor administrator and the victim of dishonest collaborators, Perrin was imprisoned for debts and had to sell his privilege to Jean-Baptiste Lully. He died in poverty in Paris, aged about 55 and his verses are now considered mediocre, but his name remains associated with the birth of opera as an art form in France. Plaude Laetare Gallia Le guide de lopéra, les indispensables de la musique, R. Mancini & J. J. Rouvereux, ISBN 2-213-01563-5 His plays and their presentations on CÉSAR
23.
Paris Opera
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The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
24.
Basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris
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Located at 6, rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, Notre-Dame-des-Victoires is one of ten minor basilicas located in the Île-de-France region of France. The closest Metro station is Bourse, Notre Dame des Victoires is the former chapel of the Augustinian fathers, built in the years 1629-1740. On December 8,1629 the foundations were blessed by the Archbishop of Paris, Jean-François de Gondi, the next day, King Louis XIII himself laid the cornerstone in the presence of the Courts seigneurs and the citys officials. The construction was funded by King Louis on the condition that it be dedicated to his victory over the Protestants at La Rochelle, the first church being too small, reconstruction commenced in 1656 according to the plans of Pierre Le Muet. Libéral Bruant, Robert Boudin, and Gabriel Leduc oversaw this work, the new church, not yet completed, was consecrated in 1666. Work was finalized in 1737 under the supervision of Sylvain Cartaud and he oversaw the expansion of the nave, the construction of the façade as well as the construction of the transepts striking spherical roof. The sanctuary is graced by several paintings by the French painter Louis-Michel van Loo, a large garden and a double-cloister existed at the site until the Revolution. At that time, they were confiscated and fell into disuse, the church was converted into the home of the national lottery and a stock exchange during the Directory, but was returned to the practice of worship under the First Empire. The remnants of the monastery were destroyed in 1858 and a station as well as an office for the mayor of the arrondissement were constructed in their place. After 1809 Notre Dame des Victoires became a church, but as it was located in a business area. Desgenettes subsequently founded the Confraternity of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, in 1838 it was raised to the status of an archconfraternity by Pope Gregory XVI. Many of the famous French Catholics of the period maintained a connection to the Church, francis Libermann and the refounders of the Holy Ghost Fathers and a whole host of Foreign Missions seminarians and priests, including St. Theophane Venard. Blessed John Henry Newman went there to give thanks for his conversion, later, the young Therese Martin prayed before the same statue for Our Ladys help in realizing her vocation. Notre-Dame des Victoires was elevated to status in 1927. Notre-Dame-des-Victoires is famous for the ex voto offerings left there by the faithful, over 37,000 devotional plaques, silver and gold hearts, as well as military decorations, have been left at the Basilica. The faithful leave these items at the Basilica in thanksgiving for favors believed to have received from the Blessed Mother. The Basilica once served as a church along the pilgrimage route to Compostela. As such, many of the ex voto offerings have been left by faithful unable to make the journey to the Shrine of Compostela itself
25.
Louis Lully
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Louis Lully was a French musician and the eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Louis Lully was the child and eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Lully. He married Marthe Bourgeois on 27 December 1694, in St. Martial de Paris, with the tacit and verbal consent of Madeleine Lambert, his mother, the son survived Louis Lully by only a little over a year, dying in Paris on 21 July 1735. What success he had as a composer was mostly down to works written in collaboration with others. For example, he collaborated with his brother Jean-Louis and Pierre Vignon on Zéphire et Flore, the one work he composed on his own, Orphée, was badly received when it was performed, though historians find it important for the prominence given in it to accompanied recitative. LIntermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux 42, no, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris, Louis XIV and the Politics of Subversion at the Paris Opéra. Journal of the American Musicological Society 54, no
26.
Mount Parnassus
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Mount Parnassus is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Dionysus and the Dionysian mysteries, it was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs. The mountain was also favored by the Dorians, there is a theory that Parna- derives from the same root as that which appears in the Luwian word for House. Parnassus is one of the largest mountainous regions of Mainland Greece and it spreads over three municipalities, namely of Boeotia, Phthiotis and Phocis, where lies its largest part. Its altitude is 2,547 meters and its highest peak is Liakouras, to the Northeast it is connected to Giona and to the south with Kirphe. Its name is due to the hero of the Greek mythology, son of Cleopompus and Cleodora. Etymological analysis, however, shows an origin of the name. The mountain is delimited to the east by the valley of the Boeotian Kephissus, the geological particularity of Parnassus is its rich deposits of bauxite, which has led to their systematic mining since the end of the 1930s, resulting in ecological damage to part of the mountain. Mount Parnassus is named after Parnassos, the son of the nymph Kleodora, a city, of which Parnassos was leader, was flooded by torrential rains. The citizens ran from the flood, following wolves howling, up the mountain slope, there the survivors built another city, and called it Lykoreia, which in Greek means the howling of the wolves. While Orpheus was living with his mother and his eight beautiful aunts on Parnassus, Apollo became fond of Orpheus and gave him a little golden lyre, and taught him to play it. Orpheuss mother taught him to make verses for singing, as the Oracle of Delphi was sacred to the god Apollo, so did the mountain itself become associated with Apollo. As the home of the Muses, Parnassus became known as the home of poetry, music, Parnassus was also the site of several unrelated minor events in Greek mythology. In some versions of the Greek flood myth, the ark of Deucalion comes to rest on the slopes of Parnassus and this is the version of the myth recounted in Ovids Metamorphoses. Orestes spent his time in hiding on Mount Parnassus, Parnassus was sacred to the god Dionysus. The Corycian Cave, located on the slopes of Parnassus, was sacred to Pan, in Book 19 of The Odyssey, Odysseus recounts a story of how he was gored in the thigh during a boar hunt on Mount Parnassus in his youth. Parnassus was also the home of Pegasus, the horse of Bellerophon. This relation of the mountain to the Muses offered an instigation to its more recent mystification, the periodical Modern Parnassus issued for the first time by Catul Mendes and Xavier Ricard contained direct references to Mt. Parnassus and its mythological feature as habitation of the Muses
27.
Figured bass
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Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era, provided the harmonic structure of the music. The phrase is shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing the continuo part are called the continuo group. The titles of many Baroque works make mention of the section, such as J. S. Bachs Concerto for Two Violins, Strings. The makeup of the group is often left to the discretion of the performers. At least one instrument capable of playing chords must be included, such as a harpsichord, organ, lute, theorbo, guitar, regal, or harp. In addition, any number of instruments play in the bass register may be included, such as cello, double bass, bass viol. The most common combination, at least in modern performances, is harpsichord and cello for instrumental works and secular works, such as operas. Harps, lutes, and other instruments are more typical of early 17th-century music. The keyboard player realizes a continuo part by playing, in addition to the bass line, notes above it to complete chords. The figured bass notation, described below, is a guide, but performers are expected to use their musical judgment. Experienced players sometimes incorporate motives found in the instrumental parts into their improvised chordal accompaniment. Modern editions of music usually supply a realized keyboard part, fully written out in staff notation for a player. With the rise in historically informed performance, however, the number of performers who are able to improvise their parts from the figures, as Baroque players would have done, has increased. Basso continuo, though a structural and identifying element of the Baroque period, continued to be used in many works, mostly sacred choral works. An example is C. P. E. Bachs Concerto in D minor for flute, strings and basso continuo. Examples of its use in the 19th century are rarer, but they do exist, masses by Anton Bruckner, Beethoven, the phrase tasto solo indicates that only the bass line is to be played for a short period, usually until the next figure is encountered. This instructs the chord-playing instrumentalist not to play any improvised chords for a period, composers were inconsistent in the usages described below. Especially in the 17th century, the numbers were omitted whenever the composer thought the chord was obvious, early composers such as Claudio Monteverdi often specified the octave by the use of compound intervals such as 10,11, and 15
28.
Passacaglia
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The passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato. The term passacaglia derives from the Spanish pasar and calle and it originated in early 17th century Spain as a strummed interlude between instrumentally accompanied dances or songs. Despite the forms Spanish roots, the first written examples of passacaglias are found in an Italian source dated 1606 and these pieces, as well as others from Italian sources from the beginning of the century, are simple, brief sequences of chords outlining a cadential formula. The passacaglia was redefined in the late 1620s by Italian composer Girolamo Frescobaldi, later composers adopted this model, and by the nineteenth century the word came to mean a series of variations over an ostinato pattern, usually of a serious character. A similar form, the chaconne, was also first developed by Frescobaldi, in early scholarship, attempts to formally differentiate between the historical chaconne and passacaglia were made, but researchers often came to opposite conclusions. One of the best known examples of the passacaglia in Western classical music is the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV582, for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach. The French clavecinists, especially Louis Couperin and his nephew François Couperin, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Bibers Passacaglia, the last piece of the monumental Mystery Sonatas, is one of the earliest known compositions for solo violin. The central episode of Claudio Monteverdis madrigal Lamento della Ninfa is a passacaglia on a descending tetrachord, the first two movements of the fourth sonata from Johann Heinrich Schmelzers Sonatæ unarum fidium are passacaglias on a descending tetrachord, but in uncharacteristic major. The fourth movement of Luigi Boccherinis Quintettino No,6, Op.30, is titled Passacalle. Nineteenth-century examples include the C-minor passacaglia for organ by Felix Mendelssohn, the first movement of Hans Hubers Piano Concerto No. 3, Op.113 is a passacaglia, Passacaglias for lute have been composed by figures such as Alessandro Piccinini, G. H. The passacaglia proved an enduring form throughout the century and beyond. Three composers especially identified with the passacaglia are Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich, in his operas, Britten often uses a passacaglia to create the climactic moment of the drama. Examples are found in Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice, Hindemith employed the form to conclude his 1938 ballet, Nobilissima Visione, and it is also found in his early Sonata for viola solo, Op.11, No. 5, as well as in works such as the Fifth String Quartet. Igor Stravinsky used the form for the movement of his Septet. Especially important examples of the form are found in the output of the Second Viennese School, revue Belge de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap 12, 19–34
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Chaconne
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In this it closely resembles the passacaglia. Alex Ross describes the origins of the chacona as actually having been a sexily swirling dance that appeared in South America at the end of the sixteenth century, the dance became popular both in the elite courts and in the general population. Un sarao de la chacona is one of the earliest known examples of a chacona, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica claims the chaconne was a slow dance, introduced into Spain by the Moors. Outstanding examples of early baroque chaconnes are Monteverdis Zefiro torna and Es steh Gott auf by Heinrich Schütz, one of the best known and most masterful and expressive examples of the chaconne is the final movement from the Violin Partita in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. This 256-measure chaconne takes a plaintive four-bar phrase through a kaleidoscope of musical expression in both major and minor modes. After the Baroque period, the fell into decline during the 19th century. However, the form saw a substantial revival during the 20th century. Both are usually in triple meter, begin on the beat of the bar. Francesca Caccini, Ciaccona Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Ciacona in D major for violin and basso continuo, another in the Partita no. 12, from the Sonate da camera a tre, doi violini, e violone o cembalo Girolamo Frescobaldi, Four ciaccone for harpsichord from Toccate d’intavolatura di cimbalo et organo, partite di diverse arie. 2 in D minor for solo violin Luigi Boccherini, Chaconne that represents Hell. in imitation of the one by M. Gluck, finale to Symphony in D minor, op. 12, no.4 in E minor, Op.98, finale Heinrich Reimann, Ciacona in F minor,51, for organ Jean Françaix, Chaconne for harp and string orchestra Gunnar de Frumerie, Chaconne op. 8, for piano Philip Glass, Echorus for two violins and string orchestra Philip Glass, Symphony No,3, third movement Philip Glass, Violin Concerto No. 13, for piano György Ligeti, Hungarian Rock, Chaconne, for harpsichord Douglas Lilburn, Chaconne, for Piano Frank Martin, Chaconne, for cello and piano Carl Nielsen, Chaconne, op. 32, for piano Henri Pousseur, Chaconne for solo violin Knudåge Riisager, Chaconne,50, for orchestra Poul Ruders, Chaconne for solo guitar Franz Schmidt, Chaconne in C♯ minor, for organ. Act 4, Scene 2 Paulo Galvão, Chacoinas in A minor for baroque guitar, jennifer Higdon, Chaconni, second movement from her violin concerto Krzysztof Penderecki, Ciaccona in memoria Giovanni Paolo II per archi from Polish Requiem. Francesco Tristano Schlimé, Chaconne/Ground Bass for piano, roman Turovsky, Chaconnes in C major, C minor and D minor for baroque lute. Simon Andrews, Chaconne, 2nd movement of Symphony No.1 For the heart is an organ of fire Marc-André Dalbavie, Ciaccona for orchestra
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Armide (Lully)
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Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto by Philippe Quinault is based on Torquato Tassos poem La Gerusalemme liberata, the work is in the form of a tragédie en musique, a genre invented by Lully and Quinault. Critics in the 18th century regarded Armide as Lullys masterpiece and it continues to be well-regarded, featuring some of the best-known music in French baroque opera and being arguably ahead of its time in its psychological interest. Armide was first performed on 15 February 1686 by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, the subject for the opera was chosen for Lully by King Louis XIV of France. However, the king would not attend the première or any of the following performances, the opera was well received by the Parisians and was revived by the Paris Opera in 1703, 1713–14,1724, 1746–47,1761, and 1764. During the First Crusade, Armide ensnares her enemy the Christian knight Renaud with her magic spells, at the moment she raises her dagger to kill him, she finds herself falling in love with him. She casts a spell to make him love her in return, upon returning to her castle, she cannot bear that Renauds love is only the work of enchantment. She calls on the Goddess of Hate to restore her hatred for Renaud, the Goddess condemns Armide to eternal love. Before Armide can return to Renaud, two of his fellow soldiers reach Renaud and break Armides spell, Renaud manages to escape from Armide, who is left enraged, despairing, and hopeless. Roughly eight decades following Monteverdis LOrfeo, Jean-Baptiste Lully produced Armide with his longtime collaborator, Armide was one of Lully’s last operas and is therefore extremely developed in style. The operas instrumental overture is divided into two parts, all with the highly professional sound, as if to accompany the entrance of a highly revered authority. At points it is playful and bouncy, while always remaining ceremonious, the first section of the overture is in duple meter and comparatively sounds slower than the second section, when the meter changes into compound. These two different styles switch off until the conclusion of the piece, the most famous moment in the opera is Act II, scene 5, a monologue by the enchantress Armide, considered one of the most impressive recitatives in all of Lullys operas. Armide, accompanied by only continuo, alternates between glorying in her own power and succumbing to piercing angst, clutching a dagger, she expresses her unyielding desire to kill the knight Renaud, who has foiled her plan to keep the knights of the Crusades in captivity. A stark sense of hesitation washes over her, and her voice grows softer and her passion for revenge, to which she was originally so committed, gives way to her new-found love, Let us get on with it… I tremble. / My rage is extinguished when I approach him / He seems to be made for love, the exaggerated use of rests is exemplified perfectly here, in measures 38-42, amidst her rage and vengefulness. Armide is struck by her contradictory and confusing feelings of love, and she reaches a decision far more humane than murdering Renaud, by casting a further spell to make him fall in love with her. The bass amplifies and is more emphatic in this part
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Dance
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Dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture, Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin. Other forms of movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming. Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle and it often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or else it may simply interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed. Examples are western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance and Chinese and Japanese song, most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre. Such dance seldom has any narrative, a group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance may be solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the dances in which, for example. Archeological evidence for early dance includes 9, 000-year-old paintings in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka and it has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from generation to generation. The use of dance in trance states and healing rituals is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance. References to dance can be found in very early recorded history, Greek dance is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, the Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, Dance is further described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals, during the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Munis Natyashastra is one of the earlier texts and it mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. It categorizes dance into four types - secular, ritual, abstract, the text elaborates various hand-gestures and classifies movements of the various limbs, steps and so on. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and, notably, the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, Dance is generally, though not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of music, many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together
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Rhythm
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Rhythm generally means a movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. In the performance arts, rhythm is the timing of events on a scale, of musical sounds and silences that occur over time, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language. In some performing arts, such as hip hop music, the delivery of the lyrics is one of the most important elements of the style. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as timed movement through space, in recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Maury Yeston, Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty, Godfried Toussaint, William Rothstein, and Joel Lester. In Thinking and Destiny, Harold W. Percival defined rhythm as the character and meaning of thought expressed through the measure or movement in sound or form, or by written signs or words. In his television series How Music Works, Howard Goodall presents theories that human rhythm recalls the regularity with which we walk, other research suggests that it does not relate to the heartbeat directly, but rather the speed of emotional affect, which also influences heartbeat. Yet other researchers suggest that certain features of human music are widespread. The perception and abstraction of rhythmic measure is the foundation of human instinctive musical participation, Joseph Jordania recently suggested that the sense of rhythm was developed in the early stages of hominid evolution by the forces of natural selection. Plenty of animals walk rhythmically and hear the sounds of the heartbeat in the womb, some types of parrots can know rhythm. There is not a report of an animal being trained to tap, peck. For this reason, the fast-transient sounds of percussion instruments lend themselves to the definition of rhythm, Musical cultures that rely upon such instruments may develop multi-layered polyrhythm and simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature, called polymeter. Such are the cross-rhythms of Sub-Saharan Africa and the interlocking kotekan rhythms of the gamelan, for information on rhythm in Indian music see Tala. For other Asian approaches to rhythm see Rhythm in Persian music, Rhythm in Arabian music and Usul—Rhythm in Turkish music and this consists of a series of identical yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time. It is currently most often designated as a crotchet or quarter note in western notation, faster levels are division levels, and slower levels are multiple levels. Rhythms of recurrence arise from the interaction of two levels of motion, the faster providing the pulse and the slower organizing the beats into repetitive groups. Once a metric hierarchy has been established, we, as listeners, a durational pattern that synchronises with a pulse or pulses on the underlying metric level may be called a rhythmic unit. A rhythmic gesture is any pattern that, in contrast to the rhythmic unit
