The rich musical context of 17th- and 18th-century France offers us, in the person of Jacques Foncès, a new expression of its dynamism and exceptional quality. All that has come down to us by this musician are 6 polyphonic masses with basso continuo, preserved in the form of choir books in the Albi diocesan archives. The archaic form used for this collection conceals a work of astonishing modernity. The resolutely classical writing for 4 voices in the French style (dessus, sometimes divided, hautes-contre, tailles, basses and basso continuo) continuously plays with colour, varying the number of voices and the tonality, infusing the whole with energy. Numerous duo and trio passages, as well as frequent interplay between the voices, make this a challenging but particularly beautiful work.