ABSTRACT
A desire to emulate the artistic achievements of Renaissance and Baroque Italy was as strong in seventeenth-century France as it was in other parts of Europe. The Italian connection at the French court, however, had begun much earlier than at the time of Mazarin, at the very beginning of the century when Caccini and his family were invited to Paris by Henri IV's new bride, Maria de Medicis. This chapter examines the kinds of Italian works that were making an impression on French composers and audiences towards the end of the seventeenth century. It describes the part that these elements of French and Italian music played in Couperin's works. At the turn of the century French cantatas modelled along Italian lines were composed by Jean-Baptiste Morin and Nicolas Bernier, inspiring a vogue for these kinds of works that attracted almost all composers in France.
