1687 - Music

Music

Music is a "corruptive influence," says François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, but he concedes that if a girl is decidedly musical it is better that she be allowed church music than be denied music altogether.

Paris Opéra director Jean Baptiste Lully dies at Paris March 22 at age 54 of blood poisoning after having stabbed himself in the foot with his long baton while conducting a "Te Deum" of thanksgiving for the king's recovery from an illness. Louis XIV has given Lully an unlimited budget and has at times appeared on stage himself to dance as Jupiter or Apollo with some of his top lords in operatic spectacles produced by Lully, spectacles that have included floating clouds, fireworks, volcanoes, and waterfalls.

Ballad: "Lillibullero" (or "Lilli burlero") by Irish nobleman Thomas Wharton, whose verses appeared last year in Robert Carr's Delightful Companion for recorder or flute. Written to discredit the English administration of Ireland under Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnell, they will be published next year in a single sheet with musical notations and be reprinted in various collections for another century.