Sunday, October 14, 2018

France: Lulli

Jean-Baptiste Lulli (or Lully) (1632-1687) was a musician and dancer working in the court of King Louis XIV. He wrote music for many instruments in many different forms. He was adept at violin and guitar but as a court musician had deep familiarity with most instruments in use at the time. I am not familiar with organ works by Lully, though several of his pieces for other instruments have been arranged for organ.

The present cover shows a stamp issued honoring Lulli on 10 November 1956. Scott 812 was part of a set of 6 stamps featuring famous men who lived in France. Lully was Italian-born though he became a French citizen late in life. The stamp is a simple portrait. The postmark is all text. The cachet however shows a violin and musical scores in the foreground, and an organ facade in the background. I do not know which organ this may be, but the specificity of the image suggest that it is indeed a specific instrument, rather than an abstract representation for the cover. The front of my cover has been scuffed a bit; some of the text is hard to decipher. I would be happy to hear in the comments which organ this is!

No comments: