Music at Versailles: entertainment at the court of Louis XIV, the “Sun-King“ (1680-1700)

To skip to a different piece, click on the time stamp below: 0:10 Prelude, Te Deum (Marc-Antoine Carpentier) 1:30 Prelude, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Jean-Baptiste Lully) 4:12 Prelude, Cadmus et Hermione (Jean-Baptiste Lully) 6:45 Air pour les arts, Carnaval de Venise (André Campra) 9:33 La venetienne, Carnaval de Venise (André Campra) 11:05 Marche des Candiots (Michael Richard Delalande) PROGRAM NOTES The reign of King Louis XIV became a second Renaissance in pre-modern France a century after the glory days of François I. Louis’ mythologized image as the Sun-King raised up the institution of the French monarchy to almost divine status. He is often represented in grandiose form as a Greco-Roman god with superhuman powers. Louis symbolized for the nation-state of France both the grandeur and the excesses of a nobility classes that 2 generations later would be crushed in a bloody revolution by the rising middle class. Nevertheless, his kingdom was a realm of elegance, dignity and gentil