Louis XIV's Composer Competition
Lucie Skeaping explores Louis XIV's 1683 competition to find his four new chapel composers
The Early Music Show · BBC Radio 3
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Show Notes
We may think of talent contests as a modern day phenomenon, but in 1683, King Louis XIV instituted an extraordinary competition to find four new composers suitable for his Chapelle Royal in Versailles. The successful applicants would each be given a season of the year to compose for the Chapel and the contest was advertised in a French gazette of the time. It attracted applications from the greatest French composers of the day, but ended in controversy with some sections of the press accusing Louis' court composer Lully of influencing the results. Lucie Skeaping investigates the competition and the composers involved.