Louis Lully

Document of baptism of Louis (signed by Louis XIV., Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche and by Jean-Baptiste Lully)

Louis Lully (Paris, 4 August 1664 – 1 April 1734) was a French musician and the eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Lully.

Nearly disinherited by his father following dissolute behaviour and imprisonment, Louis did not have the brilliant career anticipated for him, not only because of his behaviour but also for lack of talent. What success he had as an opera 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 (ballet, 1688), and with Marin Marais on Alcide (tragédie lyrique, 1693). The one work he composed on his own, Orphée (tragédie lyrique, 1690), was badly received when it was performed, though historians find it important for the prominence given in it to accompanied recitative (La Gorce 2001).

References

• La Gorce, Jérôme de. 2001. "Lully: (2) Louis Lully". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.