This is one of the major works in the monumental Marc-Antoine Charpentier edition from the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Finally brought together in a single volume, all the sacred vocal works for one and two voices, accompanied or unaccompanied by instruments, are included. For the vast majority of these works, this is the very first modern edition, their accessibility having hitherto been limited to facsimiles made from the composer’s autographs.

Dating from all periods of the composer’s career, these motets embrace all forms (hymns, antiphons, elevations, strophic or alternating compositions, etc.), all types of scoring (from solo voice to two voices, two flutes, two violins and basso continuo) and all vocal registers, offering an exceptionally complete panorama of the musician’s development through brief, often intense works. Performers will find an extraordinary wealth of religious vocal music for soloists at the height of the Baroque golden age, as well as all the pieces needed for creating a transition, taking breath, complementing other works, putting emphasis on the singers or for organising a sacred programme.

Catherine Cessac opens this first volume in a series devoted to Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s petits motets with a general introduction. In the introduction, she describes, dates (where possible) and, if appropriate, compares all the surviving sources for the motets published here: the autograph Mélanges, the Pièche collection, the parts preserved in Quebec, the Brossard collection, the edition by Charpentier’s nephews Motets melez de symphonies (1709) and the motets published by J.-B.-C. Ballard in his collection Meslanges de musique latine, françoise et italienne (1729-1731). The editor also studies the texts of the motets, their destination and origin. She discusses the choices that the composer leaves to the musicians and attempts to reconstruct, where possible, the circumstances of the motets' first performance. The introduction concludes with Charpentier’s particular musical notation, notably "noire" notation, time signatures and finals. This is followed by the texts of the motets in trilingual versions (Latin, French, English) based on contemporary translations of the motets, 9 facsimile examples showing the problems posed by the sources, the 70 petits motets in score, and a comparison of the sources in the form of critical notes.

All the works contained in the volume are also available separately for performance, in offprints taken from the present critical edition.

Catherine Cessac is director of research at the CNRS and director of the Atelier d’études at the CMBV. A Charpentier specialist, she has already published the Messes volumes 2, 3 and 4 and the Histoires sacrées volume 3 in this monumental edition. She is also the author of several books on the composer. She is currently working on the patronage of the Duchesse du Maine, and is involved in multidisciplinary projects combining musicology and literature.