Marais died in 1728.
Then there was La Londe, who began life as a valet de chambre to the Maréchale de Grammont. He was very talented and became one of the best violinists in Europe. Then there was another violinist known as Baptiste. It is supposed that he was Baptiste Anet, a pupil of Corelli. We know of a few other names: Nicholas Baudry, dessus de violon; Julien Bernier, German flute; Bernard Alberty, theorbo; Jean Théobalde, basse de violon; and Jean Rabel, clavecin. There was also connected with the Orchestra Jean Fischer (born in Swabia in 1650), who came to Paris when very young and belonged to Lully’s orchestral family as a music-copyist.
An old document came to light in Paris several years ago that gave the pay-roll of Lully’s Orchestra. Here it is:
| Batteur de mesure | 1,000 | livres | |
| 10 | instruments de petit chœur à 6,000 | 6,000 | ” |
| 12 | dessus de violon à 400 | 4,800 | ” |
| 8 | basses à 400 | 3,200 | ” |
| 2 | quintes à 400 | 800 | ” |
| 2 | tailles à 400 | 800 | ” |
| 2 | hautes contres à 400 | 1,200 | ” |
| 3 | hautbois flutes ou basson à 400 | 3,200 | ” |
| 1 | timbalier à 150 | 150 | ” |
| 21,150 | livres | ||
This shows that there were forty men in the Orchestra and that the average pay was 400 livres. We also learn that the clavecin player received 600 livres. The ten instruments that had the biggest salary were, of course, Lully’s pet Petits Violons.[47]
The Abbé Raguenet, in comparing the Italian and French Orchestras of the time, says: “Besides all the instruments they have in Italy, we still have the oboes, which, with their equally soft and piercing tones have such advantage over the violins in ‘airs of movement,’ and also the flutes such as the illustrious Philbert,[48] Philidor, Descoteaux[49] and the Hotteterres know how to make wail in a manner so touching and to make sigh so amorously in our tender airs.”
How we wish that we could go to one of the King’s Little Suppers at Marly and hear a concert by this famous Orchestra! How we should like to hear Descoteaux and Philbert play a duet on their flutes, or hear the whole Orchestra play a Sarabande, or a Courante, under Lully’s careful conducting!
Charles II of England had not been on the throne very long before he created an Orchestra of Twenty-Four Violins like that he had heard so many times with delight at the Court of Louis XIV.
The chief violinist and leader of this organization was Thomas Baltzar of Lübeck.