It is the last and certainly the most complex of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s masses; the quality of the music has been greatly admired, for the deep faith that emanates from it, for the extreme skill of the counterpoint and for the surprising efficiency of the form; it has aroused enough enthusiasm for an analytical study to be devoted to it. This mass belongs, at least in the form in which we know it, to the genre of the concertante mass, with soloists, choir and orchestra, for which we have very few other contemporary examples in France. Its interpretation requires a small choir of soloists, a choir in 5 parts "à la française" (dessus, hautes-contre, taille and basses-tailles) and a string orchestra "à la française" with 4 parts (violins, hautes-contre, tailles, basses de violon and basso continuo) as well as flutes. This full score, taken from the critical edition Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Messes, vol.1 edited by Jean Duron, without introduction, will easily allow the vocal interpretation of the work. For further references to the different versions, the dating and the circumstances of the work’s creation, please refer to the critical edition.