Music and Power at the Court of Louis XIII: Sounding the Liturgy in Early Modern France
Cambridge University Press, 5/27/2021
EAN 9781108830638, ISBN10: 1108830633
Hardcover, 350 pages, 25.4 x 18.4 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
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.