Christophe Ballard printed Henry Du Mont’s Grands motets à deux chœurs "par exprès commandement de Sa Majesté" (by special order of His Majesty) in 1686. Settled with his court at Versailles since 1682, Louis XIV set about reforming the music of his chapel, recruiting new music masters the following year. There’s no doubt that this edition is a tribute from the Sun King to the old master of the Louvre chapel who – along with Lully and Robert – had created this new genre, paving the way for his successors.

The four motets in this volume are written for small choir, large choir and orchestra. Henry Du Mont, attentive to the sacred texts he set to music, took pains to emphasise the slightest textual significance, constantly varying and renewing vocal and instrumental combinations. He thus created a rich palette of musical expression entirely at the service of religious sentiment.

Following on from the hypothesis formulated by Jean Duron in volume 5 of Du Mont’s grands motets, Nathalie Berton takes a closer look at the very rare other sources of these grands motets: a copy made by Sébastien de Brossard and another by the Philidor workshop.

Nathalie Berton is a specialist in petit opéra, to which she dedicated her doctoral thesis, and in the petit motet, for which she published a catalogue of printed sources on the CMBV’s Philidor database. She has already produced several publications for the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.