Grands motets
Encyclopedia
The grand motet was a genre of motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

 cultivated at the height of the French baroque, although the term dates from later French usage. At the time the works were typically described as motet pour deux choeurs - motet for double choir.

Form of a grand motet

In the context of French baroque music the grand motet primarily contrasted with the petit motet. The first distinction is evident in the name; the grand form was truly grand (big) in proportion calling for double choirs and massed orchestral forces, whereas the petit form was a chamber genre for 1 or 2 solo voices, 1 or 2 solo instruments, and basso continuo - the basso continuo typically provided by the harpsichord at home or organ in a smaller church. These two French baroque motet types are also very distinct from the medieval motets of Dufay
Dufay
Dufay is the surname of* Charles François du Fay, French chemist* Guillaume Dufay, a Franco-Flemish composer and music theorist* Rick Dufay, a former guitarist with AerosmithDufay can also refer to...

 and renaissance motets of Lassus, and the German motet style of J. S. Bach. The French motet type was also connected to, and determined by, the occasion and venue; whereas the grand motet was cultivated at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

, the Chapelle royale
Chapelle royale
The chapelle royale was the musical establishment attached to the royal chapel of the French kings. The term may also be applied to the chapel buildings, the Chapelle royale de Versailles....

; the petit motet - unless accompanying a larger event, could also be for private often domestic devotions. The texts varied also; a grand motet was generally a Latin psalm, hymne, Biblical cantique or Dies irae
Dies Irae
Dies Irae is a thirteenth century Latin hymn thought to be written by Thomas of Celano . It is a medieval Latin poem characterized by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic...

, while the petit motet could be shorter Latin verses from a variety of religious sources.

The grand motet also had a set of stylistic conventions, even if some of the distinctive musical conventions of the grand motet - such as entrusting the initial intonation to a soloist - were not new. The grand motet also had operatic contrast, so a grand motet was a sequence of autonomous numbers (numeros) much like choruses, arias and recitative in Italian then French baroque opera. The operatic effect was a part of the embellishment of the Sun King's splendour.

From court to concert

The first generation of grands motets, the works of Henry Du Mont, were purely royal occasions. However after the death of Louis XIV the crown became less proprietary with grands motets and the genre, and specifically the works of Delalande, moved into the Concert spirituel
Concert Spirituel
The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...

 from the first concert on 18 March 1725. Composers who may not have often been heard at court wrote grands motets for a new audience.

The composers

Virtually all major, and some minor, composers of the French baroque tried their hand at the genre, but only performance at court or, later, the Concert spirituel conferred approval.
  • Lully
    Lully
    -Places:*Switzerland**Lully, Fribourg, a municipality**Lully, Vaud, a municipality**Lully, Geneva, a village in the municipality of Bernex*France**Lully, Haute-Savoie-People:*Jean-Baptiste Lully , an Italian-born Baroque composer of French opera...

     - produced some very grand, and operatic, grands motets.
  • Henry Du Mont - the composer who established the conventions of the genre at the Chapelle royale
    Chapelle royale
    The chapelle royale was the musical establishment attached to the royal chapel of the French kings. The term may also be applied to the chapel buildings, the Chapelle royale de Versailles....

  • Pierre Robert (composer)
    Pierre Robert (composer)
    Pierre Robert was French composer and early master of the French grand motet.Pierre Robert was educated at the boys choir, or maîtrise, of Notre-Dame de Paris under the direction of Henry Frémart, Jean Francois, and Cosset Veillot before being appointed master of music at the Cathedral of Senlis...

     - not as prolific as Du Mont or later Delalande, but 24 grand motets of Robert were printed by order of the king, in folio with those of Du Mont and some of Lully, in 1684, the year of Robert and Du Mont's retirement.
  • Marc-Antoine Charpentier
    Marc-Antoine Charpentier
    Marc-Antoine Charpentier, , was a French composer of the Baroque era.Exceptionally prolific and versatile, he produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres...

     - as prolific as Delalande
  • Michel Richard Delalande
    Michel Richard Delalande
    Michel Richard Delalande [de Lalande] was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grand motets. He also wrote orchestral suites known as "Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy" and ballets...

     - as many as 70 grands motets
  • Pascal Collasse
    Pascal Collasse
    Pascal Collasse was a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Rheims, Collasse became a disciple of Jean-Baptiste Lully during the latter's domination of the French operatic stage...

     - mainly lost
  • Desmarest
    Desmarest
    Desmarest is the name of more than one French scientist:*Nicolas Desmarest , and*his son, Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest *his son, Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest Desmarest is also the name of:...

     - under his own name which survive, and also some, more scandalously, for Nicolas Goupillet
    Nicolas Goupillet
    Nicolas Goupillet also Coupillet or Goupillier was a French Baroque composer - albeit a composer who may not have himself composed all of his works....

    , which are lost.
  • Charles-Hubert Gervais
    Charles-Hubert Gervais
    Charles-Hubert Gervais was a French composer of the Baroque era. The son of a valet to King Louis XIV's brother, Monsieur, Gervais was born at the Palais Royal in Paris and probably educated by Monsieur's musical intendants, Jean Granouillet de Sablières and Charles Lalouette. He worked as a...

     - 42 grand motets, several received at the Concert spirituel
  • François Couperin
    François Couperin
    François Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...

     - the master of the petit genre, Couperin also composed as many as 12 grands motets, all of which are lost.
  • Antoine Blanchard
    Antoine Blanchard
    Antoine Blanchard was a French painter.-Biography:Antoine Blanchard is the name under which French artist Marcel Masson painted his immensely popular Parisian street scenes. The artist was born in a small village near the banks of the Loire on 15 November 1910 and received his initial artistic...

     - 11 grands motets.
  • Sébastien de Brossard
    Sébastien de Brossard
    Sébastien de Brossard was a French music theorist.Brossard was born in Dompierre, Orne. After studying philosophy and theology at Caen, he studied music and established himself in Paris in 1678 and remained there until 1687. He briefly was the private tutor of the young son of Nicolas-Joseph...

     - produced several grands motets, but in his role as an important music theorist of the French baroque he ignored any distinction between grands and petits motets in his writing.
  • Jean Gilles
    Jean Gilles (Composer)
    Jean Gilles was a French composer, born at Tarascon.-Biography:After receiving his musical training as a choirboy at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur at Aix-en-Provence, he succeeded his teacher Guillaume Poitevin as music master there...

     - 24 surviving grands motets
  • Campra - 5 published grand motets, one with a marked Italian influence
  • Nicolas Bernier
    Nicolas Bernier
    Nicolas Bernier was a French composer.-Biography:He was born in Mantes-sur-Seine , the son of Rémy Bernier and Marguerite Bauly. He studied with Antonio Caldara and is known for an Italian-influenced style. After Marc-Antoine Charpentier he is probably the most Italian-influenced French composer...

     - 36 motets "pour l'usage de la Chapelle du Roy" are recorded in his will, but only 11 grands motets have survived. His grands motets and Te Deum
    Te Deum
    The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise"....

     were still in the repertoire at the Concert spirituel until the last concert in May 1790, and the French Revolution. His motets feature the five-part chorus doubled by the orchestra, and are harmonically more conservative than those of Charpentier and Delalande.
  • Mondonville
    Mondonville
    Mondonville is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...

     - the favourite of the Concert spirituel in the years after Delalande, but after the 1740s the interest of the Concert spirituel began to turn to the works of Haydn.
  • Rameau - only 4 survive.
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