This scholarly edition of the music of Henry Du Mont sheds light on a little-known aspect of the history of baroque music in France and offers to performers, singers and choral groups the opportunity of rediscovering a remarkable musical heritage. Before his installation in Versailles in 1682, the Sun King organized his official music around three talented composers : J.-B. Lully for secular music and, for sacred music, Henry Du Mont and his colleague Pierre Robert. This period was decisive in the creation of French musical style and of the splendour of Versailles.

This volume, edited by Laurence Decobert and based on the original publication in 1681, collects a representative sample of sacred works composed before the installation of the King in Versailles. Du Mont, who was then 70, published 37 motets and 3 instrumental pieces mostly composed for the daily mass of Louis XIV. The composer, near the end of his career as choirmaster of the Royal Chapel, choose a sumptuous selection from his huge output.

The volume contains motets for one to four voices and also includes motets which can be performed with two choirs. Most of the works are accompanied by instruments ad libitum - often 1 or 2 violins (or treble viols; the composer use the ambiguous abbreviation "viol.") – but some require "symphonies" (a small string orchestra). The motets are elegant, varied, and relatively easy to perform.

In a very detailed preface, the editor presents the numerous printed and manuscript sources of these motets, describing and comparing them very precisely – dating, corrections by the composer, the meticulous details for the performers. The circulation of these works is discussed, with particular attention given to a copy made by the English composer John Blow, which was itself copied until the early 19th century. Also discussed are the vocal and instrumental requirements, innovations in notation (links between two chords in figured bass), the ossia, time signatures, the origins and functions of the sacred texts used, and much more.

This volume contains, in addition to the preface in French and English and the scores of these 40 pieces, all the texts of the motets (in Latin with French and English translation), 13 facsimiles and, at the end, a critical apparatus. Material for performance is also available separately in set of parts for singers and for instruments.

Laurence Decobert, who has a doctorate in musicology from the Sorbonne, is a librarian in the Department of Music of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. She devotes part of her research to religious music in France in the second half of the seventeenth century and has edited several volumes of grands motets by Henry Du Mont published by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. She is currently preparing a monograph on the choirmaster of Louis XIV. She also interested in collection of early music in the department of music of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and has just published an article on the collection Philidor in the Revue de Musicologie.

Du Mont suggests alternative voices for twelve of the motets. The original version is published in the critical edition. Vocal parts, which include original and all alternative versions, are also available. For example, the full score for the motet O nomen Jesu is available for 2 sopranos in the parts for “Motets à 2 voix, vol. 1 (voix de dessus)” and also in the alternative version suggested by Du Mont for high tenor and tenor in the parts for “Motets à 2 voix, vol. 3 (voix d’hommes 1)”.