Les Leçons de Ténèbres: Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Holy Week in Louis xiv’s France

The Tenebrae Lessons were important components of Holy Week in baroque France. While François Couperin’s (1668–1733) settings of the Tenebrae Lessons hold a significant place in both the repertoire and scholarly literature, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s (1643–1704) voluminous settings of the Tenebrae Lessons deserve a place alongside those by Couperin. This article first outlines the liturgy of the Tenebrae service. Second, it examines the welcoming and influences of the Italian style on the French Leçons de Ténèbres at a time when Lully’s seizure over stage music was complete. Third, it illustrates the influence of secular music-making on this important Liturgical Office. Fourth, it briefly discusses the importance of rhetoric for Charpentier and his contemporaries and rhetoric’s influence on Charpentier’s compositional style of liturgical music.