Music and Power at the Court of Louis XIII Sounding the Liturgy in Early Modern France

What role did sacred music play in mediating Louis XIII's grip on power in the early seventeenth century? How can a study of music as 'sounding liturgy' contribute to the wider discourse on absolutism and 'the arts' in early modern France? Taking the scholarship of the so-called 'ceremonialists' as a point of departure, Peter Bennett engages with Weber's seminal formulation of power to consider the contexts in which liturgy, music and ceremonial legitimated the power of a king almost continuously engaged in religious conflict. Numerous musical settings show that David, the psalmist, musician, king and agent of the Holy Spirit, provided the most enduring model of kingship; but in the final decade of his life, as Louis dedicated the Kingdom to the Virgin Mary, the model of 'Christ the King' became even more potent ? a model reflected in a flowering of musical publication and famous paintings by Vouet and Champaigne.

Introduction: music, liturgy and power; 1. David's harp, Apollo's lyre: psalms, music and kingship in the sixteenth century; 2. Accession: the coronation, the holy spirit, and the phoenix; 3. The sword of David and the battle against heresy; 4. The penitent king; 5. Pillars of justice and piety: The Entrée, the Te Deum, and the Exaudiat te Dominus; 6. Plainchant and the politics of rhythm: the royal abbey of Montmartre and the royal congregation of the oratory of Jesus Christ; 7. Succession. The vow of 1638 and Christ the king; Epilogue and conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Peter Bennett is Associate Professor of Musicology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. He previously spent fifteen years working as a harpsichordist, organist, and director, performing and recording to critical acclaim in the UK and Europe.