Composed for the Maison royale de Saint-Cyr, a convent and boarding school for young daughters of the nobility founded by Madame de Maintenon, Nicolas Clérambault’s Miserere represents, along with Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres , the high point of the equal-voice motet for convents.

Written for a choir of three equal voices (2 dessus and 1 bas-dessus), from which the soloists are drawn, and basso continuo on the organ, the Miserere is particularly remarkable for its proportions – nearly 700 measures – rare for this type of ensemble. The Miserere, one of the seven penitential psalms, was sung at Saint-Cyr at Lauds during the Office des Morts and, during Holy Week, at Lauds during the Office des Ténèbres.

This edition is based on the four surviving manuscript sources, with a well-documented preface and critical apparatus in French and English.