Abstract:
Music is an historical phenomenon, one among many. It must therefore be studied in its historical context. This applies particularly to French music in the seventeenth century. The cultural, political, religious and musical backgrounds all combined to give French music its distinctive melodic emphasis, and shaped the course of French religious music away from the mass and towards the motet. Charpentier, the only well-known mass composer of the reign of Louis XIV, was influenced markedly by Italian music, especially that of his teacher Carissimi, in his increased emphasis on harmony. However, he went further than Carissimi in developing tonality into a structural force.
