Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean Baptiste Lulli, son of a Tuscan peasant, born 1633, died 1687. He invented the dramatic overture. “But during the first years of Charles II. all musick affected by the beau mond run in the french way; and the rather because at that time the master of the court musick in France, whose name was Baptista (an Italian frenchifyed) had influenced the french style by infusing a great portion of the Italian harmony into it, whereby the ayre was exceedingly improved” (North’s “Memoires of Musick,” ed. Rimbault, 1846, p, 102).