What song is this?

May 11, 2009 5:58 PM

What classical song is playing in this short clip?
posted by boeing82 to media & arts (2 comments total)

I don't know, but it kind of sounds like Handel's Water Music.
posted by kdern at 6:18 PM on May 11

It definitely sounds French Baroque. Unfortunately I don't know the specific name of the piece, but now I'd like to know the answer, too. I'm not too versed in French Baroque music (although I do enjoy a lot of it) but my first guess for the composer would be Jean-Baptiste Lully. It sounds like something he could have written. Various pages from searches mention that the music played around the gardens is from the era of Louis XIV's court, which would make Lully a prime candidate.

FWIW, on this tourism page page about the Versailles Gardens, the blurb about the "Fountains Show" says that the show has "a musical background that visitors discover wandering in the gardens. There are eight walks or sound areas matched with pieces mostly from Lully but also from Desmarets, Gluck and Rameau" [I added the links to their Wikipedia pages]. I'm not as familiar with these latter three. Rameau might be a possibility but I'd still consider Lully first.

Some other composers for Louis XIV included Marin Marais or Marc-Antoine Charpentier (it doesn't strike me as a Charpentier piece, but I could be wrong).

Hopefully someone who's more knowledgeable with Lully and/or the other above composers (and others of the genre) will be able to pinpoint the piece.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 6:43 PM on May 11