Description
The Italian-born composer Jean Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687) spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France and became a French subject in 1661. He was a close friend of the playwright Molière, with whom he collaborated on numerous comédie-ballets, including Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman or The Middle-Class Aristocrat or The Would-Be Noble) is a five-act play intermingled with music, dance and singing. It pokes fun at the vulgar, pretentious middle-class and the vain, snobbish aristocracy. It was first performed on 14 October 1670 before the court of Louis XIV at the Château of Chambord.
In this arrangement for bassoon choir the overture is followed by three dances: Canarie; Deuxième Air pour les garcons tailleurs; and the Marche pour la Ceremonie des Turks. To enhance the antiphonal passages in performance bassoons 1-5 (with 1 outermost) should sit opposite bassoons A-E (with A outermost) and the contra player placed centrally. For extra percussive effect Bassoon E doubles on the tambourine whilst the conductor leads throughout indicating the tempo with a conductor’s staff, as was customary in Lully’s day. Conductors beware – Lully died from gangrene, having struck his foot with his conducting staff!
