LULLY or LULLI, JEAN-BAPTISTE French composer, of Italian birth, was born in Florence on Nov. 29, 1639. Through the duc de Guise he entered the service of Madame de Montpensier as scullery-boy. He then studied the theory of music under Metra and entered the court orchestra, being appointed director in 1652, and court composer in 1653. The influence of his music produced a radical revolution in the style of the dances of the court itself. Instead of the slow and stately movements which had prevailed until then, he introduced lively ballets of rapid rhythm. The music for his ballets was arranged as orchestral suites, a new form which was cultivated in Germany as well as in France. In December 1661 he was naturalized as a Frenchman, his original name being Giovanni Battista Lulli. For fifteen years (1672-87) Lully was the director of the Paris opera. While directing a Te Deem on the 8th of January 1687 with a rather long baton he injured his foot so seriously that a cancerous growth resulted which caused his death on the 22nd of March.
Lully was the founder of French opera, forsaking the Italian method of separate recitative and aria for a dramatic consolida tion of the two and a quickened action of the story. Moreover, he laid more stress on rhythm and less on melody. He improved the composition of the orchestra, into which he introduced several new instruments. Lully was a friend of Moliere, for some of whose best plays he composed illustrative music. Of his church music his Miserere, written for the funeral of the minister Seguier, is a work of genius . and on his death-bed he wrote Bisogna morire, peccatore.
A modern edition of the most important of his operas Alceste (1674), Armide (1686) will be found in the Chefs d'oeuvre classiques de l'opera francais.
See E. Radet, homme d'affaires, proprietaire et musicien (1891) ; Romain Rolland, Musiciens d'autrefois (1908) ; L. de la Laurencie, Lulli (i9ii) ; J. B. de Lully, Lully et l'opera francais (1925).