Introduction

This chapter aims to mine the contemporary sources for their historical information about musical performance at the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr. It examines the music itself within that context in an effort to reconcile contemporary accounts and draws a picture of musical life at this important institution of the ancien regime. Saint-Cyr was one of the very few religious institutions for women that could boast of its own liturgical repertory of plainchant, created for it by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, the Maison's first music master. In addition to these historical documents, a large amount of the music sung at Saint-Cyr—much of it composed specifically for the Dames and Demoiselles—also survives, primarily in manuscripts housed in the Bibliotheque nationale of France and the Bibliotheque municipale of Versailles. The music to be discussed within four generic categories:cantiques spirituels, theatrical music, plainchant, and petits motets.