LULLY, Jean Baptiste 1632-1687

Phaëton. Tragedie. Mise en musique. Par Feu Mr. De Lully Escer. Coner. Secretaire du Roy, Maison, Couronne de France et de Ses Finances, et Surintendant de la Musique de Sa Majeste. Seconde Edition. Gravée par H. de Baussen. [LWV 61]. [Vocal score]

Paris: [Foucault] a l'Entrée de la Porte de l'Academie Royale de Musique au Palais Royal, ruë Saint Honoré. ... Avec Privilege du Roy, 1709.

Folio. Full contemporary dark brown mottled calf, marbled endpapers. 1f. (recto title, verso Foucault "Catalogue des Opera de Mr. du Lully" ), 1f. (privilege dated 12 July 1709), 5-116, 119-211 pp. With elaborate quarter-page engravings to head of several acts depicting the mise en scène, including an illustration of the fall of Phaeton in Act V.

With attractive half-length portrait of Lully within oval border tipped-in to verso of front free endpaper. The 54-year-old composer is depicted with a long, curly wig and cape, with coat of arms and text below image: "Né à Florence, mort à Paris en Mars, 1687. Agé de 54 ans," the image engraved by Sornique and published in Paris by Odieuvre, "Md. d'Estampes quay de l'Ecole vis-à-vis le côté de la Samarite. àla belle image. C.P.R."

A reduced score with instrumental selections in two- or three-part textures with figured bass added, allowing for the overture and dances to be performed by solo keyboard or small instrumental ensemble.

Small ownership label of M. Lecomte to front pastedown. The Foucault catalogue, engraved by Barlion, lists Proserpine, Atys, Alceste, Phaeton, and Roland, with prices for individual bound works.

Binding considerably worn; upper board partially detached; spine lacking; endpapers worn. Occasional browning, soiling, and dampstaining; some staining, heavier to lower central margin of second half of volume; a number of signatures partially detached; minor loss to blank upper inner margin of p. 119. Lacking pp. 1-4 and 117-118.

First Edition in this format. Schneider p. 389. Sonneck Dramatic Music p. 100. Lesure p. 407. BUC p. 635. Hirsch II, 143. RISM L3003 and LL3003.

Phaëton, to a libretto by Quinault based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, was first performed at Versailles on 9 January 1683.

"Phaëton ... contains two fine duets for Epaphus and Lybie. One of them, ‘Que mon sort serait doux’, for which Lully had a special fondness, displays refined harmonic writing with a succession of delicate dissonances. The chorus, usually in four parts (soprano, haute-contre, tenor and bass), is sometimes heard during recitatives from the wings, but it also takes its usual place on stage in the divertissements developed from the great intermèdes of the comédies-ballets, which in the tragédies en musique are situated in the middle or at the end of each act. In those scenes where the dances are concentrated, the chorus contributes to the lavish spectacle by its presence alongside other performers and by its frequently solemn character enhanced by chordal writing. While bringing interest and diversity to those moments when attention tends to turn away from the drama, it sometimes gave the audience a chance to join the singing too, adopting a simple melody of a popular cast that could be easily memorized. The audience could join the members of the chorus in taking up themes sung first by a soloist, the words being contained in the librettos on sale at the theatre door, and this practice also occurred in the prologues. It can be traced back to Cadmus et Hermione, and is found in tragédies en musique of a later date, notably in the fourth act of Phaëton, nicknamed ‘the opera of the people’, in the catchy ensemble sung by the Hours, ‘Que ce palais’. " Lois Rosow in Grove Music Online

Dominique Sornique (1708-1756) was a French engraver; Michel Odieuvre (1687-1756) was a noted French print dealer, painter, and engraver.

Item #39608

Price: $2,800.00  other currencies