Appointed, in 1683, sous-maître of the Chapelle royale of Versailles by Louis XIV at the age of 25, Lalande quickly became the king’s official composer. Imbued with the Versailles motet style, he excelled in these works, considered masterpieces of the genre. With unprecedented intensity, he brought together disparate elements such as galant arias, the majestic official style of the Versailles motet, homophonic battle choruses, and cantus firmus based on Gregorian chant etc. In this motet, one of the first he wrote for the Chapelle royale of Versailles, he exploited the homophonic style and syllabic treatment of the text that characterise the motets of his illustrious predecessors Du Mont, Lully and Robert. He added a human dimension to the grand motet by carefully selecting the texts ("Cieux, écoutez ce que je vais dire"), translating their spirit into a heartfelt musical language. The work is on a grand scale: five soloists (dessus, haute-contre, taille, basse-taille and basse), a large French-style choir (divided dessus, hautes-contre, tailles, basse-tailles and basses) and a French-style orchestra (dessus de violons 1 et 2, hautes-contres, tailles, quintes and basses de violon, flutes, oboes, bassoons and basso continuo). It completes the series of Lalande’s youthful motets already published by Éditions du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles: Deitatis majestatem and Beati quorum.