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Musiques de Cour Et D'opera Pour Louis Xiv on CD

The divertissements of the French court, renowned throughout Europe, were at their height during the reign of Louis XIV (1638-1715). Earlier genres, especially the air de cour and the air de ballet, were transformed in the tragedie lyrique, introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Within a few decades the combined talents of Moliere and Lully, then Moliere and Charpentier, produced the comedie-ballet (a fine example is Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the 'Turkish March' from which has remained famous to this day), while the brilliant duo formed by Quinault and Lully worked on tragedies lyriques. These genres were to leave their mark on French music for the next hundred years and influence European music as well.