Twenty four king violins

The orchestra was founded in 1626 under Louis XIII . He took part in all official social events (holidays, balls, funeral ceremonies, ballets, concerts) at the court in the Palace of Versailles . If necessary, the orchestra was enhanced by the wind instruments of the Grand Stable ensemble ( French: Grande Écurie ). Famous musicians played in the orchestra (at different times), among them J.-B. Lully , J.-M. Lecler , J.-F. Rebel (and his son F. Rebel ), J. Ober .

Lully, who held under Louis XIV the posts of “chief inspector of instrumental music” ( French Surintendant de la musique instrumentale ) and “teacher of music of the royal family” ( French Maitre de la musique de la famille royale ), was not satisfied with the discipline and level of professionalism of the orchestra and in 1656 he obtained permission to organize and lead a smaller autonomous string orchestra. The team initially consisted of 16 string players, later the number of string players reached 21, and also 2 sopranic zincs and 2 bassoons were added. The smaller orchestra was called Les Petits Violons de Lully (lit. “Little Lully Violins”) or shortly La Petite Bande . The larger orchestra was accordingly called La Grande Bande .

In 1761, the “Twenty-Four Violins of the King” Orchestra was disbanded, and its musicians joined the Chapelle Royale , whose musicians until then had only performed church music.

The composition of the orchestra was represented by five stringed instruments of various sizes:

• 6 first violins, ( dessus de violon , order g - d ¹ - a ¹ - e ² )
• 4 hautes-contre (case length 37.5 cm; pitch c - g - d ¹ - a ¹ )
• 4 tailles (hull length 45 cm, build c - g - d ¹ - a ¹ )
• 4 quintes (case length 52.5 cm, pitch c - g - d ¹ - a ¹ )
• 6 bass violins ( basses de violon , tuning B - F - c - g)

The first violins of the orchestra belonged to the species Violino alla francese (aka Violino piccolo ) and were somewhat smaller than the Italian standard. Three stringed instruments of a larger size and the same order ( hautes-contre, tailles, quintes , the last two varieties are similar to tenor viols ) are now obsolete. The bass instrument (an analogue of the bass viol) was tuned in a tone below the modern cello . Later, Lully changed the composition of the orchestra, adding, in particular, 2 double basses .

• La Petite Bande (baroque music ensemble / S. Köyken baroque orchestra)

• Reconstruction project of the 24 King's Violins Orchestra of the Center for Baroque Music in Versailles