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 with 5 parts "à la française" (treble, hautes-contre, taille and basses-tailles) and a string orchestra "à la française" with 4 parts (violins, hautes-contre, tailles, basse de violon and basso continuo) as well as flutes.

This critical edition by Jean Duron contains, amongst other things, a preface in French and English in which he studies the different versions of the work, the dating and the circumstances of its creation. Pages of Charpentier’s manuscript are included in facsimile to explain the editorial problems. Jean Duron also gives performers resources for an informed interpretation, in particular for the scoring and stage layout.