One does not immediately associate the eminent figure of Jean-Baptiste Lully with the domainof 17th century harpsichord and organ. Chronicles, gazettes, accounts, Loret’s versified letters or Mmede Sévigné’s correspondence attest to an entire society’s infatuation with Lully’s operatic works. Toour best knowledge, Lully never wrote any specific keyboard piece : yet the 17th century frenchharpsichord repertoire lists 217 of his works arranged for the keyboard. This fact gives him topranking ahead of his harpsichordist contemporaries, such as Jacques Champion de Chambonnières,Louis Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue or Jean-Henry d’Anglebert. This original repertoire of theatricalworks is to be found in 40 sources and comprises overtures, chaconnes, passacaglias and dances whichwere then fashionable, with particular emphasis on the minuet. Only Jean-Henry d’Anglebert gives arepresentative personal selection in his Pièces de Clavecin, published in 1689. This repertoire wascopied by anonymous authors and mostly remained handwritten. It was internationally distributed inFrench, English, German, Austrian, Belgian (Southern Netherlands), Danish, Italian and Spanishliterature. Although it was aimed at a public of music-lovers, such as royal blood princesses, youngladies from high-ranking aristocracy and bourgeoisie, many arrangements were also meant forexperimented musicians and even professionals. Like the piano four-hand versions of symphonies byBeethoven and Brahms in the 19th century, these keyboard adaptations of Lully’s theatrical works weredesigned to provide a large public with access to the music they love. Bruce Gustafson, David Fullerand David Chung have dedicated their research to the harpsichord on the basis of the literature whichthey have studied. An alternative approach, supplemented by the discovery of new sources, helps realizethat sometimes there is only a fine line between the repertoire for organ and that for harpsichord : ourresearch examines these two aspects of musicians’ practices in the second half of the 17th century, in thelight of Lully’s theatrical works.

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   |wiki=    Wicri/Musique
   |area=    BourgeoisGentilV1
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   |étape=   Analysis
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   |clé=     Hal:tel-01752003
   |texte=   The arrangements for keyboards of the theatrical works by Jean-Baptiste Lully, taken in their historical, esthetic and social context (1661-1715)
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