Collaborations between the Musique de la Chambre and the Musique de la Chapelle at the court of Louis XIII: Nicolas Formé's Missa Æternae Henrici Magni (1638) and the origins of the grand motet.

Sacred music at the court of Louis XIII (r.1610-43) has received much less scholarly attention than that of the following reign: in part due to the lack of surviving musical sources associated with the Chapelle Royale from the period, and in part because of the strikingly conservative and functional nature of the little that does survive, there certainly seems to be little incentive for detailed consideration of this period. Literary evidence, however, suggests that we should perhaps look for venues outside the Chapelle Royale—indeed, such evidence points to the performance of sacred music by the Musique de la Chambre alone, and to collaborations between the Chambre and the Chapelle at important ceremonial events throughout the early part of the 17th century, even if, on our current understanding, no specific pieces from these occasions survive. Fortunately, however, a re-examination of an important manuscript source dating from the period (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, V ma Ms.rés.571) brings to light a repertory of sacred music from c.1620 to 1640 that can now be associated with the Chambre, such works also providing a credible model for collaborations between the Chambre and Chapelle at Louis XIII’s dinner table. In this light, Nicolas Formé’s famous Mass for two choirs, the Missa Æternae Henrici Magni (1638), appears also to represent a collaboration between Chambre and Chapelle, with the scoring and musical techniques associated with each ensemble reflected in the disposition of the two choirs. Since Henri Sauval famously credited Formé with the development of the double-choir model which featured in the earliest grands motets (especially those of Jean Veillot from c.1660), it now seems clear that the grand motet as a genre grew out of collaborations between the Chambre and Chapelle dating back into the 16th century rather than, as is often suggested, from any Absolutist imperative emanating from the Sun King’s court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]