ABSTRACT
The first composer contracted to fulfill special requests for Saint-Cyr was Jean-Baptiste Moreau, who composed music for Jean Racine's two tragedies, Esther and Athalie, and for another play, Jonathas, by Joseph-François Duche de Vancy. A composer named Cocquerest received the handsome sum of 3,686 livres between 1770 and 1773—considerably more than the music master's salary over those same years. Looking as a whole at the surviving music composed for the Maison royale, a pattern emerges that relates musical genre to the employment status of the composer. The musicians were responsible for most of the Maison's music in genres associated with the church and the stage; nevertheless, these same men are underrepresented among composers of works in another important genre: the cantique spirituel. The dearth of cantiques by composers associated with Saint-Cyr may reflect the fact that, at least in regard to this genre, the community was active primarily as a collector, not as a commissioner.
