Music at the Maison Royale De Saint-louis at Saint-cyr

The history of music at the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr-the famous convent school founded by Madame de Maintenon and established by Louis XIV in 1686 as a royal foundation-is both rich and intriguing; its large repertory of music was composed expressly for young female voices by important composers working within significant contemporary musical genres: liturgical chant, sacred motets, theatrical music, and cantiques spirituels. While these genres reflect contemporary styles and trends, at the same time the works themselves were made to conform to the sensibilities and abilities of their intended performers. Although Jean-Baptiste Moreau's music for the biblical tragedies by Jean Racine shows the influence of contemporary opera, it more closely resembles works written for and performed at the Jesuit collèges for boys. The liturgical chant sung in the church was composed by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers and reflects two seemingly conflicting contemporary attitudes, featuring both new chant compositions for the liturgy and "reforms" to traditional chant, which (in the minds of the reformers) had fallen into a corrupted state. The large repertory of petits motets (short sacred Latin pieces for solo voice), mostly composed by Nivers and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, are simpler and more restrained than works by contemporary composers such as André Campra and Nicolas Bernier. A close study of the motets reveals much about subtle changes in musical style and performance practices at Saint-Cyr in the eighteenth century. In all cases, the stylistic features of the music for Saint-Cyr reflect a careful consideration of the needs and capabilities of the young-although accomplished-singers of the school, as well as an awareness of the rigorous requirements of Madame de Maintenon, who kept a close watch over the propriety of all things relating to the piety, behavior, and image of her charges.

Deborah Kauffman is Professor of Music at the University of Northern Colorado. Her special areas of interest include French baroque music, music in convents, and the musical repertory of the Maison de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr. She serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Musicological Research.