Henry du Mont: O mysterium

Featuring

Sébastien Daucé
Caroline Weynants
Caroline Dangin-Bardot
Ensemble Correspondances
Henri Dumont

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Historical Context

The 1686 collection of Du Mont's Motets pour la Chapelle du roy was luxuriously printed 'by His Majesty's express command' and also included works by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Pierre Robert, serving as a significant 'musical memorial' to Du Mont.

Compositional Technique

Du Mont conceived the grand motet for double chorus (small and large chorus) with a variable instrumental ensemble, composing nearly seventy such works and around a hundred smaller pieces for solo voices during his twenty years at the Chapelle du Roi.

Composer Biography

Henry Du Mont, originally from the principality of Liège, directed the music for Louis XIV's Chapel for twenty years, from 1663 to 1683.

Historical Context

Both Henry Du Mont and Jean-Baptiste Lully, another prominent composer, were chosen by King Louis XIV to renew musical genres at court, with Du Mont excelling in the grand motet and Lully in tragédie en musique.

Composer Biography

Du Mont's early motets, the Cantica sacra (1652), show his origins and training, featuring two or three solo voices with basso continuo, sometimes with violin or viol ad libitum, which was atypical in France at the time.

Interpretation

For this recording, Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances experimented with historical performance practices, specifically regarding the instrumental 'symphonie' (ensemble) for different motets, based on historical data and musical analysis.

Composition History

As sous-maître of the Chapelle de Musique du Roi, Du Mont composed motets for the King's Mass, directed the Chapel musicians, and trained the choirboys, known as 'pages'.