Epilogue and Conclusion

Summary

The Epilogue and Conclusion take as their starting point the developments in music and liturgy that occurred in the early years of Louis XIV’s reign – the earliest grands motets, the changes to the liturgical practices at the chapelle royale in the early 1660s, and Pierre Perrins’s pivotal publication, Cantica pro Capella Regis of 1665. Reflecting much broader cultural and social changes, the new musical and liturgical practices at court – now centered around music as an aesthetic construct – throw into sharp relief the practices of the earlier period (the reign of Louis XIII). While the grand motet was part of narrowly directed staging of power for a small and elite audience, Louis XIII was embedded in a universal musical/liturgical discourse, in which almost the whole population of France participated and therefore legitimated the king’s power.