MUSIC AND THE ABSOLUTE MONARCH: TRENDS IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE AND CHINA

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how music was used to support autocratic government at the courts of two great contemporary rulers. Louis XIV of France(1643- 1714) and the Kangxi Emperor of China(1662-1772). At a time of world-wide development in the arts, it is appropriate to compare and contrast the situation of one of the most influential of them at the very heart of contemporary western and eastern civilizations the courts of the Sun King at Versailles and the Son of Heaven in Beijingo But to do so, we must first go back several centuries and note the philosophical ground according to which each conceived its musical usage. In Europe, Plato had first emphasized the necessity to the Governor of music, dance and verse, which linked him with cosmic movement, the rhythm of the spheres. Later, in the sixth century, Boethius had named Christ Summus Ille Musicus', thereby stressing that through the most divine music, communion could be achieved with Christ and God. Mediaeval theologians elaborated on the spiritual importance of number in music, the third representing the Trinity, the octave the perfection of wholeness, etc. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries neo-Platonists, for example Marcilio Ficino, revived the concept of music in the service of the state at a time when discussion about statecraft absolutism and the divine right of kings was helping to redefine the ruler's methods and powers.